A Second Chance
by cybertronian human
Summary: Hope is restored the spark of every Autobot, for Sam has been returned to them a hundred years after the Decepticons have murdered him. But why does he have Energon in his veins and traces of an object long gone?
1. Chapter 1

Hey, I know you all want me to update my crossover and that I haven't been. But, I've been trying to figure out how it will play out, and juggling my life. I just haven't figured out the climax yet.

But, I personally thought this plot was brilliant. I couldn't not post it. I have to hurry now before I forget anything.

I don't own Transformers and I never will. If I did, Sunstreaker and Prowl would be in the movies, and Jazz would never have died.

Enjoy.

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><p>I glared out the window as my whole life disappeared. Well, I'd still be able to see a small blue orb in the sky, but it'll no longer be part of my reality. Not for months.<p>

My stupid father had to volunteer for this stupid mission and took his whole stupid family with him. Ok, we aren't stupid. I'm not at least. I'm probably the only sane one here.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Sam..." my Mom's sentence fell short. I turned to look at her unhappily. "Sam, forgive your father. You know how important this mission is for us all. He was the best candidate."

"The only other volunteer only had a dog." I pointed out. They needed a family to test the living possibilities on the moon. They needed to know the efficiency of everything and compare it to Earth standards.

"Yes, that's why they needed us. Just feel important that you're one of the first three people to actually live on the moon."

"I'd rather be the first to refuse to live on the moon." it's not like I had friends I left behind. I had a hard time trusting anyone to be close enough to make friends. It's just, they're hauling me out here for a whole year and I don't even have a choice!

"Judy, Sam. Come here a minute." Dad clicked the intercom off. Stupid thing... I followed her out and into the other room where Dad was piloting us on our five-hour journey to the moon. Space technology had advanced tremendously since the first mission to the moon a hundred and fifty years ago. "Alright, we're nearly there. And once we get there, we're just going to eat and go to bed, so we have an early rise tomorrow."

I sighed and leaned against the wall. This room was filled with a lot of big computer stuff. If something's big these days, you know it's got to be high-tech. I wasn't as mad as I let on, I just hate the whole no-option thing. That and I've had a very short temper lately. I'm giving Dad the stink-eye just to et the point across that if he ever does something like this again, I might kill him.

"Judy, I want you to maintain the house. Like you normally would. Give reports every so often, to tell how different it is from Earth. We want every detail, even small stuff. Like dust, ok?"

"Dust is nothing small. It always collects in those small little corners of stuff and it takes forever to find something that will get it out." she huffed.

"How about a sock?" I suggested. She rolled her eyes at me, but I honestly didn't understand why she cant just use a sock. I do.

"Yes, well, you're also in charge of food and meals. They'll send us more food every week. Sam, I want you to keep an eye on all the other stuff. The air lock, watching to make sure the radar works and warn us if there are any meteorites headed this way." Dad turned to me.

"Whatever." I sighed. I don't even have cell phone or internet device to stay up-to-date on Earth stuff. At least there'll be outlets I can charge my IPod in.

"What about you honey?" Mom asked, setting a hand on his shoulder.

"They're putting us on the edge of one of the last uncharged regions. I'm going to map it out and get a few pictures of the land." he replied.

"No!" I stood up. I dropped my personal crisis to recognize this wasn't in his physical ability. He's worked with NASA forever, and last year he had to go in for a knee surgery. He wasn't exactly fit. He was more the sit-behind-a-desk-and-do-important-stuff-there-where-he-can't-straign-himself person.

"Ron, you certainly aren't up to this. They should get a different team up here and do that." Mom objected with me.

"They don't have anyone to spare. There have been a lot of crashes on Mars and they're investigating that." he stated.

"You can't do this, you'll injure yourself. We don't know what's out there. You might get buirried alive and we'll never find you." Mom persisted.

"Judy, Someone's got to do it-" I cut him off.

"Then I will." I said quickly. They turned to me. "I mean, I'm pretty fit. I always come out on top of my gym class. Plus, I've got awesome reflexes."

"Not last year." Mom gave me a disappointed look. I'd been slipping in all my classes.

"Well, that was a fluke. I'd do fine." I insisted. Plus, exploring uncharted territory would be much more fun than sitting in front of a monitor all day. That's why I want to do this. Not because I'm worried about my dad. What teenager volunteers for work just so their parents don't have to do it?

"Are you sure..." Mom was hesitant.

"He'd do fine. He'd probably find it fun too. He'd always loved outer space. This puts him closer than sitting inside all day." Dad backed me up, trying to hide how relieved he was he didn't have to do it himself.

"But Ron... Sam..." Mom looked between us and caved. "Alright. It's not like there are wild animals out here. Just, be careful and keep your communicator on you."

"As you command." I bowed and turned to the door. "I'm back to watch my life fly away."

"Cheer up Sam, we've got a surprise waiting for you at the house." I ignored my Dad as I let the door close behind me.

When we landed, I grabbed my stuff and walked out, first through the air lock door. It closed behind me and I heard it seal. The next second, the other door open and air rushed into the small entry way. I was caught off guard and stumbled back slightly. After regaining my balance, I rushed through the familiar lay out to my room.

Stupid imitation house, stupid airlock. My patience is cut unbelievably short and I couldn't handle any more scientific discussions today. I locked my door and dropped my stuff on the floor. There was a knock on my door and I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling a childish tantrum coming on.

"We haven't videoed in yet. And you haven't had dinner." Dad objected.

"Tell ol' Lennox I'm good." I called back. I wasn't really hungry. I don't think I've really actually been hungry a day in my life. I've never put on fat weight, and I'm always perfectly healthy. The perfect patient.

But I have been sleeping allot.

I heard him walk away, realizing how strained I was. I took a deep breath and cooled down, opening my eyes and taking in my room for the first time.

There was a vibrant blue laptop sitting there on my desk. I grinned, grabbing and unplugged the computer quickly, jumping onto my bed.

Those little liars! We do get internet out here! I wasn't about to question it, but I was about to find out they'd put all my games and my music on here. On the top of the main screen were three groups of icons. The first group was all for Dad's former job, now mine. The second was for Mom, and the third was now Dads. I could check out their stuff, awesome.

I'd taken a two-year course to learn everything that we'd be doing here. I knew how to do every job. A two-year course for living up here a year. Oh yeah, I'm also going to be held back a year. I can't do online school, my work, especially my new one, is going to take up all my time. Eventually, I'm going to be gone whole days at a time, I'll have to go out so far.

I yawned, breaking myself out of my train of thought. After plugging my lap top back in, I changed out of my new suit, it was no more bulky than normal clothing, and it fit over our street clothing. The hood came up and the glass attached last. The glass went from just above my crown to below my chin. It even curved with my neck, for maximum flexibility.

The tank had unlimited air, for the air was recycled. There were two tanks, which I call the inhale tank, and the exhale tank. There was an altered plant in the tunnel between that could change the carbon dioxide to oxygen just as quickly as I could do the reverse. It didn't need any care, it didnt need so much carbon dioxide to survive.

I'll need more suits if I'm going to be going out so much. Maybe they'll get me another one next week with the food. Maybe I could sneak back to Earth when they head back.

No, I can't leave my Dad to do this job. No matter how mad I am at them, I'm not cruel.

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><p>The next chapter will be up very quickly. R&amp;R, I'm literally starting now.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

Next chapter, enjoy.

If I owned Transformers, this probably wouldn't be a FanFiction.

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><p>The next day, I was dressed and fed before either my parents woke up. Hoping to make it the rest of the way, so Mom wouldn't hold me back for an hour, I dropped my laptop into my bag and had my suit up in moments. First day of work, I planned to only be gone for a few hours. Five, maximum.<p>

As I walked away, I heard shouting from inside the house. I glanced back to see Mom staring out at me, glaring. She just wanted to see me off. I waved and turned to keep going.

As I walked, I flipped on the camera built into my helmet and pulled the button to my voice-recorder, it wasn't part of the camera. I pressed it down and spoke.

"Alright, so far all I see are flat rocks. Nothing weird and, oh, guess I better document which direction I'm going." I let up on the button and checked my special built watch and compass. The watch was set at the time we would have back at the house.

"And upon checking the direction," I held down the button again and spun around back to the house, "I realize I'm going the wrong direction. Heading due west of the house, I will enter uncharged regions." I glanced back to the window. Mom was smirking at me and I stuck my tongue out. Everyone always accuses me of being childish. Maybe I was, but who cares? "Make note, find a way to get back at Mom." I spoke again before letting up on the recorder.

I was walking for about an hour before I decided to stop. I pulled out my lap top and pulled up the blank map. I would mark this point and my laptop would go off beeping if I past this radius. I locked in the distance and put it away, stepping away from the mark and looking around.

"Wow, impressive." I said sarcastically. "A whole lot of nothing." I sighed, feeling the hairs on the back of my neck start to prickle. It was that feeling you got when someone was watching you. I shook my head. There was no one out here but me. I was probably just paranoid; all those stars, clearer than ever before, were like millions of eyes. Watching me closely.

I shivered and shook it off. Back to work.

That evening when I returned, I wrote my report and we went along with life. I had nothing to share at dinner except the wall of rock that was around south of us seemed to extend west too. Dad told me it also curved north, which meant it also passed along our east. We were probably on the outer banks of that meteor sight way out there. It was a very large one, and I could only see it barely from the house. It looked like the meteor hit it from the side, and kicked up a mountain.

The next day wasn't much different, and the one after that, but the feeling I was being watched never left. We were out there a full month before anything interesting happened.

I was about to extend my radius about a mile more the next day, but today I would finish scoping out this unstable rock formation I'd found.

"Looks real creepy in here. Like the Bat Cave." I mused. I stopped to catch my breath for a moment, deeper inside than I'd ever been before. "Well, Mom always complained I needed to spend more time outside." I joked, too bad no one heard it. Oh well. "First sign you're going insane: you start talking to yourself. I should have been committed years ago then. Hm, maybe then I'd get to go back to Earth." I stopped, looking upwards and seeing the thin, unstable pillars around me held up many, many large, dangerous looking rocks. Well, guess I better avoid hitting one-

I froze as I felt the tank on my back knock into something when I turned to switch direction back towards my house. I looked up again and seen the pillar sway.

Please don't fall, please don't fall, please don't fall. It broke in half and fell away from me. It didn't fall on me, but it hit other pillars. As they all fell around me, I heard the boulders above, so, so far above, start to fall. I crouched down and covered my head automatically. There was no safe direction to run, and the rocks were falling down straight to me.

There was a muffled explosion from somewhere nearby and I heard rocks knock into each other above me. The next second, I heard them fall around me, but all I felt him me was pebbles.

I held my position a minute longer before realizing something weird just happened. I stood up and looked around me. That sounded a lot like a gun. But, there was no one there.

I turned and ran out of there, all the way back to the house. Alright, maybe it isn't the stars that are stalking me. And whoever _is_ stalking me, they have a weapon. What am I supposed to do? What am I going to do? Wait.

Why did they save my life?

I shook the question off and started running again, strongly aware they were still watching me. How could anyone else survive here? There's no way to sustain food here, and we haven't had any stolen. Does the government have another settlement nearby? No, they would have told us. They definitely would have told us.

What's going on?

"How's your work coming along, Sam?" Mom asked me that night at dinner. I snapped out of my thoughts, momentarily contemplating telling them about my new-found stalker that saved my life.

No. They'd call me crazy. How do I know I'm not crazy? Didn't I just say, before that happened, that I was crazy? Yes, but I was just talking to myself. Who doesn't? I'm not insane...

Or am I? What other possible explanation is there for this?

"Good." I said simply, stuffing my mouth full of peas. Just so you know, food tastes pretty much the same. "You?" I deflected the conversation.

"Alright. But the toaster still isn't working right. I don't know if it's broken, or it's being out here." she took a bite of chicken.

"You can tell them to send another new one, tonight." Dad suggested. I took another bite of chicken and stood up, setting it in the sink. "Where're you going?" he asked me.

"To bed." I answered, troubled. Did I imagine it all?

"Goodnight. You're sleeping so much lately." Mom mused. "Are you feeling alright?"

"I'm alright, just a bit tired." I sighed. She nodded and let me go. I yawned and turned in, still turning the events over in my head. I know you aren't supposed to go to bed right after you eat, but nothing I know of can make me gain weight, or anything. I've even always had perfect teeth, and I brush them about once a week.

That night I dreamt I was brushing my teeth. I'm not sure I understood this dream, but I didn't question it. It was probably some super coded message translating into some upcoming sickness somehow. Whatever.

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><p>Not going to say much, going to write more.<p>

R&R


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry it's so short, but I don't have much time and I wanted this one to cover only this part. It might seem a bit rushed, but I wanted it to seem like everything was happening very quickly.

I don't own anything but my own original ideas.

Enjoy.

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><p>Another two months went by and I nearly forgot the incident. I was now out of the house ten hours and taking a tent and food and everything. I could see the crater much better by now and I'd reached where the wall enters the uncharted areas. I was very excited about this, it would tell me a lot about the land. I could see if it made a full circle and I could tell so much.<p>

I blinked unnaturally long, bored and tired. I was also weaker than usual. I used to surpass my class mates easily in physical activities, now I tiered easily like an old man.

"Great." I looked up to see a hole in the wall, big enough for me to crawl through. "Maybe I can see past this thing through there." I grinned and secured my equipment. I reached up and grabbed a tight hold of the wall and hauled myself up. The suit made me a familiar weight, but it didn't do anything for the bags. They were still real light and easy to carry.

It took me longer to get up there than I had expected. When I finally got up there, I took a second to rest before hauling myself up to look inside. The light didn't reach in very far, but I could see the ground come up about three feet down near the hole. After that, the light stopped.

I climbed a bit higher and swung myself in, realizing only too late that I should have used my light to make sure the rock there extended farther in.

The arch of my feet caught the edge of the rock and I threw my weight backwards in an effort to regain balance or to at least fall away from the ledge. But it was all to no avail, the ledge was too small for me to position my weight far enough back to counter the force pulling me forward and downwards.

I fell. I screamed.

I had no idea when the next ledge would be, or if there even was another. If I didn't hit anything until I hit the bottom, I would be dead. I'm dead. I pulled myself into the fetal position and braced myself for impact. I was going to die, I would hit the bottom and they'll never find me.

My hand brushed against wall and I throw both arms toward it, but it was too late. The wall sloped away from me again and I only succeeded in losing my supplies bag. Very well, I won't need it when I died.

I suddenly hit something, but it went down with me to lessen the impact. It curled around me instead of stabbing through me, and it was a warm metal, not cold rock.

I was alive. And I was in a giant hand.

I looked up, heart beating out of my chest and ready to scream again. But, there was something about those glowing blue optics that calmed me momentarily. The only things I could see in this pitch-black place.

That moment of calmness was gone in a blink and I started screaming again, scooting back for dear life. Oh, please don't kill me, I'm going to die. This time I really am going to die! This was the thing that was stalking me. A giant alien.

I suddenly fell over the edge and started to plummet downward again. This time, the back of my suit was pinched and I stopped, hanging in the air. I was turned around and swung through the air in a dramatic swoop. He was turning around.

I heard crunching of rock below and felt the air blow straight at my face. He was walking forward. I tried to cover my head. Where was he taking me?

What's going on? Why did he save my life, twice? Only to kill me in some dramatic way? I'm going to die.

How do I know he is a 'he'?

Just as I was ready to have a heart attack and scream again, light showed itself up ahead. I stared wide eyed as it came nearer. When he came to a sudden stop and crouched down to put me in the light, I twisted around quickly to see a large yellow hand retract into darkness. I looked up to stare at the blue optics staring right back. Now that I was out here and could breath better, my head was clearer. I realized those optics weren't as threatening as I had first thought. They actually looked, sad.

He blinked and turned. I gasped as he walked away. What was that about? I've got a giant, yellow, alien robot stalking me, having saved my life twice and took me out of that dark tunnel.

I looked around and realized he had put me in the mapped area where the wall was allot closer to the house. I could see it clearly.

I could also feel those optics still on me.

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><p>Like it? Last update for a while, and when I come back, I'll try to update my other story too.<p>

R&R


	4. Chapter 4

Here's another update, I've got this story already written on paper for the next ten chapters or so. I don't have access to a computer at home, but I am still writing it then. So updates will be coming out quickly when I do get to a computer.

Don't own a thing, but I might be the cause of some stuff at later times. Enjoy.

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><p>My parents had worried when I returned home early, and without my supplies bag. It all happened so quickly, I just shut my mouth and nodded through it until they let me alone in my room. There, I proceeded to check over the information I'd gotten. The video feed, the voice recordings. Everything and anything. I just wanted to see something to tell me I wasn't insane.<p>

'Cause I wasn't, was I? It's not completely irrational to believe you have a giant alien robot stalking you, that's probably yellow and has saved your life twice now. Right?

I froze, staring at the screen. It was all fuzzy like one of those old analog televisions people used to use back in the late twentieth century and real early twenty-first. It cut out as I neared the wall, I didn't have a chance of seeing anything.

I don't remember hitting anything, and there aren't any kind of bugs or anything out here. Maybe these cameras do have their expiration date- no. No, here it cuts back into reception. But, I'm nearly home. This is at least five minutes after my alien stalker takes me out of there. I've got nothing here, and I know I never turned on the voice recorder during this time. I was too concerned for my life than to think about trivial things like that.

I leaned back in the desk chair and covered my face. I knew it. I knew it, I'm insane. I made up the whole thing. It's more likely there's a natural rock formation that slid me all the way over there. That sounds ridiculous, a slide that size made naturally, but it was certainly more believable than alien stalkers that wanted to keep you alive. Maybe there's some sort of gas there that seeped into my suit and made me delusional. Maybe it was something I ate. But whatever it was, it certainly wasn't what I'd thought it was.

I was suddenly very tired again. Why do I get tired so much anymore? It's ridiculous. Teenagers are supposed to be able to stay up until three AM, no matter what time they wake up. What's wrong with me? Probably I'm not getting enough sugar. My potato chips and soda stash is getting dangerously low.

I chuckled to myself; that was a joke. I've never been one to snack on things. No food has ever been appealing enough to me to eat it for no reason. I just eat it for meals, and I do that because I know I've got to. I've never actually tested how long I can go without. What annoys Mom most about this, is I don't have a favorite food. She sometimes wants to surprise me, and yells at me afterward for not having one.

Great, now I'm exhausted. I only start thinking about this stuff when I'm exhausted. I don't even know how it started.

I didn't bother calling out, I just slipped into some pajama pants and into the covers. I needed to sleep, it was the best remedy for my insane-ness. Is that a word? I don't think so. I wonder- shutting up.

I woke the next day and went out just as I would have any other day, fully convinced the eyes following me were the stars I could see clearer due to the lack of an atmosphere. What else would make my hairs stand on end? I convinced this to myself a full next month, feeling the energy drain from my body slowly but surely.

"Maybe you've got some rare disease that ages you faster." Dad suggested, taking a bite of steak. It was their anniversary.

"Ron." Mom rolled her eyes and handed him a buttered roll before starting her own roll. "Sam, you're just working too hard. Take a day off tomorrow. See if it does you any good. And for Pete's sake, eat more. You're all skin and bones!" she waved a finger at my plate. I was actually the exact right weight for my age. To the decimal. No matter how much I eat, or how little, it changes nothing. I'm pretty sure food goes straight through me. Mom's jealous of my 'metabolism'.

"I sure feel tired lately. See this grey hair? It's from all this recycled air." He complained, waving his fork around. I rolled my eyes.

"Dad, you're the one that signed us up for this."

"Yeah, well, maybe we should take a vacation." he suggested, taking another bite.

"Where? To Mars? We aren't going back to Earth until our contract is fulfilled." Mom ripped off a piece of her bread. This was her favorite meal. She can, and has, eaten steak for desert. She eats it so quickly, I don't understand how she does it.

"Good point." Dad sighed. He was obviously having second thoughts about all this. "They did say we could return if one of us got sick or injured and we couldn't take care of it up here. I think my knee's bothering me again."

"Oh, deal with it wuss." Mom rolled her eyes, having picked up on the words teenagers use these days. I don't, I don't understand the point of most of it. "It's only three more months."

"Three months is three months. You realize you missed Black Friday? And Thanksgiving? New Years, Christmas, the whole sha-bang?"

"Yes, I know. But as your son said, you're the one that signed us up for this." she had her mouth full.

"I know, I know. It's just, I get the feeling that something is going to happen. Something big. Remember I got that feeling the morning before your Aunt Susan died?" he stared at her. I froze and stared wide-eyed at him. I knew when he was being weird and when he was serious. He was as serious as he's ever been. And of course I thought about my not-actually-there stalker.

"I remember, but you also got the feeling the day our air conditioner broke. Ron, they're probably just going to miss a week's worth of groceries. And we'll survive, We've got plenty of cans of vegetables and extra chicken in the freezer. We'll survive."

I slammed the door behind me, notifying my parents of my departure. I locked my bedroom door and grabbed my laptop, opening a file I hadn't opened in a month. I went over it again, carefully. But still, there was nothing. I was making smart-alecky comments about the virtually unchanging landscape until I fell silent about ten minutes before the image cut out. Like I'd gotten a sense of foreboding, or I somehow knew subconsciously that there was something there.

Half an hour later, picture came back. I was walking swiftly and silently back to the house, not even looking back. I'd examined the black and grey fuzz carefully, searching for something, anything, I'd perhaps missed before.

All I got from it was the mental image of me staring at a fuzzing monitor in the middle of the night, trying to decrypt top secret messages from the alien starship. I'm so paranoid. There's nothing that could possibly happen.

And so I dragged the file to the trash and shut my laptop, forgetting about it all for another month and a half. I wasn't completely convinced there was no one out there, but I was positive they weren't going to hurt me. I don't know what it was, but I had this weird trust that nothing and no one would hurt me now.

My buzz died however, in the middle of April. I was re-scouting the second area I'd done when a meteorite suddenly crashed into the moon on the other side of the southern wall. I quickly checked my computer, realizing this was mapped territory. If I could get samples from this crash sight, I might even get a pay raise on my already ridiculously high bribe.

I hurried to pack up my lap top and started out, slinging it over my shoulder as I went. Smoke started to rise from the sight and I began to worry. Meteorites weren't explosive after they land, were they? There wouldn't be anything radioactive and- what's that sound? Why does it sound like there's a car here, on the moon?

An alien vehicle suddenly skidded to a stop feet in front of me. The door opened and a voice so vaguely familiar I could have heard it from a dream came from the vehicle.

"Get in Sam!" I stared with wide-eyes. I knew this was my stalker, only, I imagined him to be more, different. You know, with legs to walk me out of the dark tunnels, and hands to catch me with. And big glowing blue optics to freak me out with. "Hurry!" he urged. I snapped out of it and glanced back to the crash site; three figures were flying from it. They looked an awful lot like planes.

"Yes. They're coming this way. I suggest you get in before they get here." I turned back to the waiting vehicle and dove in. I had no doubt in my mind he was the good guy. The door shut and he sped off. The interior was nothing like any vehicle I've ever seen. No dashboard, seat compartments, radio, or steering wheel. The only things I recognized were the seats, the seat belts, and the windshield. I knew what to do now. I buckled up and held on for dear life as he raced past speeds I knew would get you in trouble on the interstates.

He made a sharp turn into the dark tunnels and I closed my eyes. I preferred to think the dark was because of me and that there was no chance we'd hit a wall and die.

Amazingly, that was just the case. He skidded to a stop in a room with light. The seatbelt retracted in around me so I didn't jerk forward. It let me go and the door opened. I stepped out, staggering a bit.

There was an odd sound behind me, odd but just as familiar as the voice. So I turned around. Sure enough, there was the alien I'd expected. He quickly picked me up and brought me into another room, putting me on the table and turning to work on these huge computers. If I thought Dad's stuff were high-tech, these were a thousand times more so.

"I'm not going to give you a full-fledged explanation quite yet. I have to take care of these jokers first." he messed with something and one of the screens followed the three jets, which transformed in mid-air and fell to the ground unharmed. They had red optics, as appose to his blue. They also looked a lot, lot colder. "I expect they're just scouts, but they have to be taken care of. But before I go, I should probably first explain that I will under no circumstances harm you. I have, for a fact, healthier intentions than even your parents. And I know they love you."

I stared with wide eyes. Ok, I was probably still staring with wide eyes. Have I even blinked?

"I won't hurt you, and I swear I will explain everything once I return. My primary motive is to keep you safe, therefore I will destroy them before speaking with you. Stay safe youngling." he flashed a grin, that obviously held more meaning to it than simply being polite, at me before leaving. I was left here to examine the room. I was oddly calm and trusting, and this room was oddly familiar. I can guarantee I've never been here before, but I might have dreamt about similar rooms and buildings.

A sudden movement on the screen I'd watched earlier caught my attention. The yellow one was standing there with two red blades extended, ready to fight. They seemed to be talking, but I couldn't hear. The camera was well hidden, and there was no sound.

He was so much smaller than the others, plus there was only one of him. There was no way he'd win. Somehow, I didn't believe that. As I watched, he moved skillfully and fluently. He dodged under the blow of some mace. He sliced through one's metal and tackled another. He dodged and struck, as if it were easy. Slicing and attacking, he was obviously more skilled than them. Within moments, he took one down and made another retreat from injuries.

I watched the injured one closely, he stood near the camera. As his wound seemed to heal before my eyes, he looked directly at the camera. He grinned menacingly and reached forward. His hand covered the video feed momentarily, then there was sound and he drew his hand back.

"Your time is up, insect. Lord Megatron will be pleased to kill you again, Samuel Witwicky." He suddenly hit the ground. The camera caught just enough of the background to show the other was already dead. It was just this one left.

"You stay away from my boy." The yellow one said so threateningly, that there probably would have been enough to kill him. But just for good measure, he shot the enemy in the center of his head. After a second, the yellow one stood and looked at the camera. His hand covered the lens this time, and sound was killed. He pulled away and nodded into the camera once before transforming and leaving the battle scene.

Seconds later, or hours, I can't tell, he returned in his robot mode.

"Sam, are you alright?" he tore my gaze from the monitor. I nodded silently. I definitely had no idea what was happening, and I wanted to find out. "Of course you are, you were in here. But it's my job to worry." he defended.

"Wha-" I croaked, finding my voice was gone. He rushed over.

"Let me explain a few things first. You probably won't believe me, not at first, but you're reincarnated. In your past life, you were our most trusted human. You were our closest friend, and the Decepticons knew that. They still, to this day now that they know you're back, try to use you to weaken us. They already have, once before." I shook my head in disbelief.

"It's true." he assured. "We met five years before the government declared our war with the Decepticons officially over and kicked us off the planet. During those five years, you were the only human any of us trusted completely. There were very few others. But you were just a teenage civilian boy. We all grew fond of you, and we all still will do everything we can to keep you safe. So please, do not think any of us will ever hurt you."

"Us?" he keeps speaking in plural, but he's the only one I've ever seen. I definitely only have one stalker.

"The others are scattered around the galaxy, keeping an optic on the Decepticons." he explained. I nodded, not sure if I was in shock or this weird pointless trust I had was real. "Now that the Decepticons know you're back, I've called the other Autobots to come here. There's another battle coming, if not series of battles. I'm going to keep a closer optic on you, to make sure you stay safe. We need to act quickly, so I'm going to take you back to your house. Your parents must be re-informed of our presence. They also need the protection. The Decepticons will, and have, used them to get to you, to get to us. They are not above anything." He offered a hand.

I stared for a moment, before willingly climbing on. I have no idea what's going on, and it'll be another hour before I even understand what he's already told me. But if there's one thing I know, it's to go with your gut feeling. And my gut feeling is to trust him. Actually, it's to trust him to the extent I thought up scenarios in which I knew I was crazy. Long story short, I trust him with my life.

I've got to be crazy. I may have been right about the giant alien robot stalker, but I'm still insane.

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><p>Long enough to make up for the last? I hope so. I wanted to keep going, but it's late. Expect more tomorrow, hopefully.<p>

Please leave a review, I love them.


	5. Chapter 5

Hello again, hope you are so far liking it. I'm writing it in three places currently, so obviously I do. But, what author doesn't like their own work? Just a note, if you want a better mental image of the Autobots here, I had them take on their 'War for Cybertron' looks. If for some reason you don't know what that is, it's probably the best transformers video game currently out there. They also look closer to their G1 counterparts, so I'll be going with these looks rather than the movies. Also, TF3 never happened. Liked the movie, it was dramatic, but it would mess with the story line.

I don't own a thing, credit goes to those geniuses down in Hasbro.

Enjoy.

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><p>I could see my parents rush out the door as we neared, they were both probably freaking out pretty badly right now. I knew his plan when he let me out, but didn't transform. That would have freaked them out even more.<p>

"Sam! Are you alright? We heard noises, and, what is that? Where'd it come from?" Mom hugged me and pulled away quickly, pointing a shaking finger at the small yellow vehicle.

"Ah, I'm alright." I took a step closer to the Autobot; I picked up on the name earlier. "And, he's one of the good guys. He just saved my life. So, don't freak out too much. Please." I urged, as of which he transformed.

My mom screamed and my dad hugged her close.

"Sam! Run!" I honestly thought they looked ridiculous. They were freaking out as if from a horror movie, yet everything here was normal. The moon was silent, and the Autobot behind me held still, not making any violent moves.

"Mr. and Mrs. Witwicky, I'm pleased to meet you again." he said politely. At least he has common sense. Manners would make Mom realize he didn't mean harm faster than anything else would have. Not like she was obsessed with people having them. More like...

"You're so nice." she said confused. "But your a big scary-"

"Mom, he's the good guy." I reminded.

"He's got more manners than you!" she accused Dad.

"Judy, we have a problem on our hands." said man reminded. She was easily distracted be certain things. Manners, for some reason, the government, and my future.

"There is no problem Dad." I assured. He crouched down behind me, but slightly to the side.

"I'm Bumblebee. Our enemies currently want you and your son dead. I'll be staying nearby to insure this doesn't happen." he said just the right thing.

"I don't believe you." Dad glared. It didn't take long for them to warm up to him enough to talk back and express their distrust. Kind of like me, only I was quick to trust him. Maybe we all are reincarnated. And this is just part of having a history with them in this past life.

"I knew you wouldn't. You didn't believe us the first time. Only then, you were disbelieving our existence, and our pledge to be the good guys." Bumblebee seemed to remember something amusing, he glanced at my mom. "You won't believe this either, but you're all reincarnated. And your history among us started then. That's why the Decepticons want you dead."

"No, that isn't possible." Mom shook her head. "How is it possible to live twice? Why?" she stared unnaturally calmly.

"I can prove it. I was Sam's guardian. I can tell you he loves plain pepperoni pizza-" I looked at him weirdly.

"Sam doesn't have a favorite food." Dad cut him off. Bumblebee looked surprised and confused at this, realizing the truth by my face.

"Odd..." he thought momentarily before continuing. "His favorite subject is astronomy and I know you two both enjoy steak."

"A lot of people like steak." Mom said stiffly.

"And Sam's year book statement is on the internet." Dad realized a supper advanced alien robot like him could surely access the internet.

"Alright, then, Sam's best friend was Miles, until recently."

"His only friend." Mom frowned.

"I was Sam's best friend after that." Bumblebee finished, as if Mom hadn't spoken.

"You seem to claim to know my son pretty well." Mom started.

"Yes." he smiled. "This wont earn me any brownie points, but I know him better even than you two." that got my mom upset. I stayed silent and watching as they spoke over my head.

"Really? You know my son better than his own parents?" she had a competitive streak, and a soft spot for me naturally. "Alright then. What was his first word?"

"According to you? Ooble. But to everyone else who knows that isn't a word, 'no'." Bumblebee replied automatically.

"Birthday?"

"June third, in seventeen days." Mom bit her lip and thought. I knew that look. She had an embarrassing question.

"Who was Sam's first girlfriend?" I felt my ears go red.

"He's only sixteen, he hasn't had his first girlfriend. But he's had a crush on Mikayla Banes for years."

"Ok, moving on." I rushed. Mom stared at me, realizing he was telling the truth.

"You- but, but," Mom stuttered unintelligibly. "What do you want with my son?"

"I don't know what you mean-" she cut him off.

"I mean, what do you want with him? Don't lie."

Bee looked at them both before speaking. "I just want to be his guardian."

"Oh, yeah. Great." Dad said sarcastically. "What does that mean?" Dad demanded as if whatever he though it meant was something really bad.

"That I can under any given circumstance, take the boy's safety into my own hands and protect him as I see fit without interference." Bumblebee said protectively.

"And?" Mom prodded.

"And, it gives all decisions to be made concerning Sam and anything to do with our war or our species to me. As his parents, you would make irrational decisions. Plus, I know better the situation and would make the proper choice much quicker."

"No." she said quickly.

"But-"

"No." she repeated, glaring. "I'm not handing my son over."

"But I would do best to answer in such situations." he pleaded. He wanted their approval first.

"We're his parents. How could anyone do a better job than us?" Dad was blowing steam out his ears. Mom's face was red.

"Alright, let me give you two very real scenarios. They happened in his past life, you do believe me by now. Don't you?" reluctantly, they nodded. How else would he know those things about me. It's not like on the drive here we were talking about my first word and my crush.

"The Decepticons have managed to infect Sam with tainted Energon. Energon is toxic and has an acidic effect on organics. It burned through his veins. First, his tissue would start to deteriorate, then his bones would burn straight through. During all of this, his muscles would nearly catch fire. They'd tainted the Energon with a chemical that would set him into paralysis. He could not move, see, or talk. But he could hear, and feel the Energon burn through his body. And let me tell you, it was very painful."

I shivered at what he was describing, almost as if I could remember it. Like, when you see someone with a broken bone and you can almost feel their pain. But it's all in your head. This actually made me feel warmer inside, and it nearly stung. As if I'd just gotten over it.

"What do you do? You've got two hours after he's injected, and it takes an hour to get wherever you're going." he stared at my parents intently. I sank to the ground, holding my ribs. It sounded so terrible. I was suddenly scooped up, Bumblebee sat down himself and moved me to sit on his lap. I relaxed slightly.

"Take him to a doctor, what else could we do?" Dad said weakly. He understood this wasn't just a question; that it actually happened. Whatever Bumblebee did, it saved my life. Because this wasn't what killed me in my past life.

"No human doctor would be able to do anything." Bumblebee said a bit softer. "You'd have made the wrong choice. I took him to see Ratchet, our chief medical officer. It isn't organic medicine you need, it's a mix between our kind and yours.

"Ratchet quickly gives two methods of curing the boy. The first is a very time-consuming. It consists of carefully draining his system of just the Energon. It takes an hour and if it worked, it would cut it close. But there is no chance of hurting the boy. But if there is enough time, it would take only just enough time.

"The other method is using a piece of medical equipment designed for us. We don't know if it will cause him harm, but it would clear the Energon from his system quickly. It's a fifty/fifty chance he makes it out healthy. But with the first, it's the same fifty/fifty chance we would make it in time. Which do you choose?"

They stared with wide eyes, having no idea what they'd've been getting themselves into. Mere seconds later, Bee spoke again.

"By now, the first option would no longer be an option. You would have to go with the second."

"What did you choose? Did he die?" Mom asked timidly.

"No. I took the second option quickly and stood with him when Ratchet ran the procedure. As it happens, Sam was not injured. But if we'd done it any sooner, or if we'd've waited any longer, we would have lost him." Bee said softly, holding a hand around me where I sat.

"What's the second scenario?" Dad demanded, irritated at how Bumblebee had answered.

"Not nearly as complicated." Bumblebee smiled slightly. "Sam's been put on the edge and needs to take a break and go abroad. The Decepticons have made three attempts at ending his life in one week and every time, they came too close. He's got the government hassling him politically, he's got the Decepticons hassling him mortally, and even you two were driving him closer to the edge. You disapproved of us for months after each major battle, concerned for his life. But, I assure you, he would be in much greater danger without us.

"Where do you take him?" Bumblebee stared at the two of them questioningly.

"Hide him in the house, windows all closed up. We'd stop giving him a hard time for a while." Mom said as if it were obvious.

"The Decepticons could easily locate him there. They had in the past. And as it happens, he is more relaxed and at ease when he is with us." Bumblebee grinned proudly.

"Then take him to that base of yours." Dad grumbled. "Surely that ought to be safe. And you're all there."

"But there, soldiers, Autobot and human, are constantly being called to battle at Decepticon sightings. He's not in danger, but the war is still there. And he will still be hassled by the government. They don't care."

"Fine. You know what, maybe you are better fit to take care of my son." Mom snapped. "Be his guardian. You obviously know better than we do. Where did you take him?"

I looked up at his wishful expression.

"Just to the Ark. A place not even on Earth, where the war is not constantly a reminder of why he's trying to hide. There, we had plenty of time to talk and relax. I could calm him down and by the end of the week, he was ready to endure a million more close calls. He doesn't snap very often, he has a very large patience when it comes to the war and all of us. It's quite spectacular-"

"You." Mom cut him off. "Took. My son. Off. Earth?" she was shooting him daggers and I honestly feared for his life. Dad flinched.

"No-no." he shook his head. "No, this is ridiculous. The government let you take him off-_we_ let you take him off Earth?"

"Of course. And it wasn't the only time. He was the only human we trusted on the Ark. We didn't even trust Major Lennox on board." Bumblebee started.

"Major Lennox?" Dad muttered, Bumblebee didn't seem to have heard him.

"He went with us on a few satellite-missions. Even one to here. Samuel loved to return to the Ark at every chance we got. It was the only time he got to see many of our members. Sam made it his job to become all our friends. And, well, none of us could resist his friendship. We all valued it above any of our other connections with any human."

They stared at him blankly. "You speak of this as if he were a dog that loves to go on a car ride." Dad stated bluntly.

Bumblebee snorted. "No, no. He just loved being on the Ark like any of the rest of us. He truly was, and is, accepted within our ranks."

"Where did he sleep?" Dad asked suspicious. I frowned, trying to figure out what they were seeing in this.

"My room." Bee stated, also confused.

"How about on the base?" Mom asked, also thinking whatever it was Dad was thinking. Bee seemed to catch their drift.

"My room."

"What did you do to my son?" Dad demanded accusingly.

"Nothing. I was only his guardian and best friend. As his guardian, it's my job to be overprotective and paranoid about his well being. I preferred to keep him within range of my off-line scanners. And they wouldn't reach farther than the walls of the room. We had been attacked at the base before, and the safest place for him at all times is with me."

"What about on this 'Ark'? Doesn't sound like you could get attacked there." Mom challenged.

"I'm still over protective. Plus, the Ark has absolutely no human rooms. There is nothing human on that ship. Sam needed to stay with me just to get around." They had no reply to that.

"So you're just paranoid about his safety?" Dad asked skeptically.

"He's been ambushed by the Decepticons at high school, collage, home, and even the grocery store. Excuse me if I was a bit over protective." from the fact his hand tightened around me, I guessed that 'was' should be an 'is'.

"What about what you're doing with him now? You aren't even bothering to check if he wants as far away from you as possible." Mom eyed where I sat on his lap. I looked up at him trustingly, confirming the falsehood of her suggestion.

"Force of habit from his past life?" He shrugged. "If he wanted down, he would say so. And I'd let him down." I turned back to my parents and nodded, agreeing. They nodded back, not believing him completely. I was still trying to figure out what they were accusing him of. I honestly couldn't think of anything.

But, maybe that was just because I was exhausted. I did mention I get tired allot, and really quickly. Suddenly, the armor around me was very comfortable. I shifted to lay down, which didn't catch his attention. He didn't even look down. He just adjusted his hands accordingly as I got comfortable an easily fell asleep.

I was woken up literally ten minutes later when my parents realized I was asleep. Ironically, it wasn't them poking me in the ribs. I tried to wiggle away, swatting at his hand. He didn't stop, just laughing at me.

"Urg." I rolled over so my ribs weren't exposed. But, my back was. He grabbed the back of my suit and hauled me into the air, holding me up like he'd done after I freaked out when he caught me. "I'm up." I groaned, rubbing my eyes. I noticed my parents below were staring in shock at Bumblebee's methods. He was still laughing at my behavior.

"Were you tired?" he asked, amused. I grumbled something even I didn't even know what it was.

"What'd I miss?" I yawned, he set me back down in his lap.

"We were just discussing your future." he answered. Something that would make any normal teenager very upset. I just yawned again and moved closer to the heat he generated.

"Continue."

"You need to go inside to sleep." he moved me to the ground. I wined in a very childish way.

"I don't want to." I glanced at my perplexed parents. They watched me in confusion. "Everyone else is out here." Bumblebee's expression softened.

"You remind me of a sparkling." he stroked my head once affectionately. I heard a strange noise coming from my parents.

"We're going in." Dad said stiffly.

"Oh." I sighed, put out. Bumblebee agreed, sighing with me. "Well, goodnight Bee." he froze at what I called him. My parents rushed me inside.

"Goodnight youngling." he said softly. I slept easily that night.

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><p>Does his personality seemed to have started changing? Are you finding a few things strange about Sam? Do they have anything to do with some surprise, or am I making things up?<p>

By the way, I've actually got the calendar for the year this is taking place in. So, I can give exact days. I needed it to keep track of how far into their mission they are, and when Sam's b-day is. Why? Keep reading. The date of this particular update is May 17, 2111.

Please review, I love them. I may already have everything planned out and written down, but I still sometimes need the reviews to get motivation to type it and update it.


	6. Chapter 6

Greetings all, I am currently looking for the G1 season 2 part 1 & 2 disk sets. And also the movie. For some reason, I have season 1, 3, and 4. It's odd. I just decided to put this up here, because I know no one cares, to waist space and make it look like I had something important to say. And I do. One word.

Enjoy.

I don't own a thing save for the story line and a few things I made up.

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><p>When I woke up the next day, Bumblebee was nowhere in sight. I had the overpowering urge to find him and return to him, and despite my parents' pleading, I set out to do so. However, after doing a full 360 on the house, I stopped by the front door and pondered where he could be.<p>

Of course, the front door faced south, so I was staring at my next idea the whole time.

"Du." I rolled my eyes and grinned widely, starting forward at a brisk pace. I continued to build my excitement as I went, wanting to hear more about this past life of mine, and wondering more about them themselves. I was thinking so hard, I wasn't paying attention to the now-familiar yellow vehicle until it pulled up in front of me.

"Sam," he transformed and held me up. "What are you doing out here? Those weren't the only Decepticons to land here. What if they found you before I did?" he glanced around, paranoid.

"Sounds to me like you weren't doing a very good job stalking me." I grinned, looking up at him trustfully. He looked back to me.

"I was busy, contacting the others. They're on their wa- hey. I wasn't stalking you." he defended.

"No, you were just watching me without ever showing yourself and keeping close tabs." I laughed.

"Well, if you put it that way. I couldn't very well show myself without cause. Past life or not, you'd've freaked out." he stated, troubled. He was completely oblivious to my good mood.

"I would have gotten over it. I am grateful you were stalking me, however." I sighed.

"Me too. I didn't think you'd honestly just jump through a hole in the wall thirty feet in the air." he stared at me bemused. "My base is closer; I'll return you home later. I haven't run scans on the defenses today, and I haven't checked the area. Honestly, didn't you see those Decepticons yesterday?" he started walking quickly.

"Yeah, I also seen how easily you took them down." I started. I looked up at him again. "I was only looking for you." his steps faltered and he glanced down at me, expression allot softer. He smiled back affectionately.

"I would have returned within the hour, youngling." he rubbed my head affectionately before moving me to his shoulder. I shifted slightly and looked around us as he entered the wall. Literally. There was some sort of hologram covering the entrance. Lights were on this time and I realized the tunnel was actually a hallway. Kind of. It looked more like the hall way had crashed into the rocks.

Or, a whole space ship crashed into the rocks.

He brought us into a different room than before, setting me down on the table and sitting down in a chair himself. I hung my legs over the edge and swung them slightly. He knew what I wanted.

"You already know I was your guardian." he started.

"You are again now." I reminded. He grinned at this, enjoying it.

"Yes, and I've waited a century to be so again." he sighed. I watched him trustfully, swinging my legs slightly. I'd felt different since I met him. Not like, happier or something like that. More, like _I_ have changed. "Around the base, you got to be known as my boy, not just my charge. It was my job to protect you, but things quickly came to be you were my boy. I'd rarely leave your side, not that you'd've wanted me to. We were close friends, and everyone knew and treated us as a packaged deal." I smiled, able to believe this easily. I just had this natural feeling being around him and everything.

If you allow me to be your guardian, you should probably know I'm worse than an overprotective mom." I laughed at his way of phrasing it. "It's true. Ironhide tried to sneak you out once to teach you how to handle a gun and I completely flipped out. I'm your guardian; you don't need to use a weapon. You never had before, you never would. Anyone that would attempt to hurt you would be off line before they ever had the chance. I may also just be a scout, but I'm more dangerous than Optimus when someone threatens your life." He paused before sighing. "Didn't matter, Optimus ordered me to let Ironhide teach you how to handle a gun. I could at least keep that to the training room, however."

"You'll have to put up with me. I limit your time with the twins. You'll see why later." he paused and looked at me amused. "That's a joke. You'll get it when you see why."

"I'm sure I'll pretend I don't." I grinned. He chuckled.

"We we incredibly involved in your life. I have no regret saying we were your only friends. You had other friends, before us, but you lost contact with them. I think after you got involved with us, you couldn't sit through a conversation about 'that new movie that just came out last night'."

"Normal stuff?" I guessed. He nodded. I smiled. "Yeah, I couldn't see myself returning to the land of the normal."

"You tried. Only, the thing that made us all skeptical you'd be able to do it, was you had no human friends. Well, you had Mikayla and William, but they were almost as involved as you." Mikayla? I don't have friends now, I don't trust anyone else enough to even be friends. But, I'm alright with Mikayla. I thought that was why I even had a crush on her. She's the only one at school I'm comfortable enough around to talk to them. "Also, we'd never let you go to a doctor. You were the only human Ratchet would treat, thought I'm sure you would have preferred someone else to be."

I laughed, imagining why.

"As you should know, your parents were also in danger. So, should the Decepticons, ah, get to them," he frowned, "one of us would get custody. First me, then Optimus, then Arcee, so on and so forth. We even paid to get you back into collage after the Decepticon that had been after you destroyed the library. I was your first and only car, when I had to leave on missions, one of the others would take my place." I stared, realizing they really did care about me. I wasn't just some human boy they brought to the base when the government pissed them off. They actually leeched in deep in my life.

"At the base, you were my boy, but at school you were the kid with all the 'sweet rides'." he chuckled. "You could have befriended any one of the kids at school, every time a different one of us came to pick you up. Once, even Optimus came to surprise you and there was a riot in the parking lot." He laughed. I cocked my head to the side in curiosity. He projected an image of a semi truck. It was both red with blue flames, and blue with red flames. I laughed, thinking of what riot this would have caused if he showed up at my parking lot to pick me up. The next day, I'd be the most popular kid there.

"Then, when you became our ambassador-"

"Your what?" I cut him off, gasping. Me? An ambassador? I don't have the patience, let alone knowing what I would be doing.

"Yes, you were just as skeptical when Optimus requested it. But, you spoke on our behalf often anyways. You were the only human we trusted speaking on our behalf. When you became our ambassador, the whole collage found out you had a top secret government job. Nosey as they were, it didn't take long for them to find out you were potentially in danger, and of course they thought it was because of your job. They also learned you were doing it voluntarily and weren't getting paid."

"Popular much?" I shifted where I sat and pulled my legs up. I stretched out and looked up at him, trustingly still. There was just too much irrational trust not to let it show.

"Not really. You didn't quite get along with your own race too well. especially since most of the humans you talked to that knew of us were disrespectful and ungrateful to us. That's what peeved you off more than anything else."

"Why?" I asked curiously. "Why not something like, oh, all the attention I was getting?" as I've said before, I've never been fond of others. I would hate the attention I must have gotten.

"That's right, you didn't like the attention. But you could stand it. After running through the middle of two battles, killing Megatron, having the entire world out for your head, watching Optimus die, bringing him back to life, and dying yourself, a little media was like an annoying fly." my gaze grew steadily more in awe. There's no way I did all that. No way, that's like a movie. Not real. But, this isn't any more real than a movie. Yet, here he is. Look where I am.

"Wow." I finally uttered.

"Yeah." he chuckled at my expression. "You were very brave, and stubborn."

"You always speak so highly of me. Surely I wasn't this great." I objected. I just can't believe it. They must see me in some light greater that what I really was.

"Sam, in many ways you were a normal teenager. Your moral compass was just as north as they come. You had no problem telling the government off for, quote, 'being spoiled brats'."

"I said that?" I gasped, feeling giddy.

"Yes." he laughed at the memory. "Mostly, you referred to their always reprimanding us and demanding control of everything, like they knew what they were doing. That they think everything that's happened on Earth was the worst thing that could possibly happen and we failed at protecting their planet." my mood quickly soured. "Your favorite rant was about how they have lost minimal casualties and are 'crying like babies' while we've lost our whole race and our home, but we can suck it up and be the mature ones."

"That sounds terrible!" I gasped, sitting up. "I had no idea the government could be so near-sighted."

He laughed and stroked my head again. Just like always, my anger cooled and I backed down. He was just showing his affection, he didn't realize that calmed me for some reason.

"You haven't changed-" he was cut off as the alarm went off. I jumped and he grabbed me. "Slag!" he ran out. "They're here." he said simply in explanation. I tried to calm my heart, huddling closer.

Right outside were dozens of aliens, fighting. There were ones like Bumblebee, with blue optics, and ones like the three that attacked yesterday, with red optics. Two Decepticons started at us and I was caught by surprise when Bumblebee threw me through the air. That was the last thing I would have expected.

Larger hands than his caught me, and before I could have a chance at seeing anything, I was jerked back the other way. There was a slicing sound, then a crunch and a crash as something fell to the ground. I turned around wildly to see a red and white Autobot pulling a yellow glowing axe out of a Decepticon. He looked down at me.

"Welcome back Sam." he greeted warmly before handing me over to someone else and diving back into battle. My new holder skillfully backed back away slightly before setting me on his shoulder and transforming both red arms into canons and firing at every pair of red optics that showed. He dodged shots taken at him, when suddenly I was pulled backwards off his shoulder by a painful grip. I felt the strain on my ribs scream.

Sure enough, when I looked up, it was a Decepticon. Not for long, however. Two nearly identical Autobots appeared out of nowhere. The yellow one feigned an attack from the side just as the redone tackled my captor. I was once again flying through the air. The yellow one caught me, covering me as he fell to the side somersaulting to dodge an attack. He landed in a crouch, firing back. The red one attacked the enemy from behind and together they took him down.

"The great and all-powerful Sunstreaker strikes again!" the one holding me cheered for himself. "Saving the famous Witwicky single-handedly-"

"Single-handedly whatever. I saved your gears back there." the red one barreled forward, slamming a hand onto his brother's back. I was suddenly taken by the red one and he grinned at me. "And I saved you from his ego. See ya." he dropped me into someone else's hands and joined his brother against another foe.

The black and white Autobot now holding me tumbled around, evading blows and blasts before spearing three enemies nearly at once, feign back, and striking once more at one. Just as he took the one down, the other two had him pinned down, I heard an explosion somewhere.

"Nice try-" one roughly took me away, only to be shot in the head from behind. I found myself back in familiar smaller yellow hands as he helped the other Autobot up and defeat the last of the three. Or, try. He escaped.

"Having fun are we?" Bumblebee asked as the black and white one tried to pursue the runaway.

"Sure am!" the red one shouted, yielding a large axe and running head-first into a particularly nasty group of Decepticons. I don't think there was a single Autobot in the group at all.

Out of nowhere, someone called out from our left toward the enthusiastic Autobot. "Ironhide! Fall back!" the red Autobot transformed in mid step and gunned it, doing a U-turn and plowing out of there right before the whole group blew up. Smoke was everywhere, and neither of us seen the Decepticon that was about to attack Bumblebee from behind until the one that responded to 'Ironhide' transformed at full speed, striking him down.

"Thanks." Bumblebee grinned.

"Now we're even." Ironhide answered with a reflecting grin of excitement. I turned back to where the explosion was to see the smoke clearing. Little damage had been dealt. How are we going to win? These guys just never stop!

"Optimus!" Bumblebee shouted and tossed me toward a now-visible red and blue Autobot. He was larger than any of the others, I knew this first hand as he stashed me INSIDE of his armor. It closed me in and I heard him shout.

"Hold on Sam." I was suddenly jerked around in fluent motions, stopping every once in a while and jerking around for a few seconds after that. He suddenly stopped and lowered, I heard blasting.

This went on for several minutes; jerking and slicing. Explosions and crashes were everywhere. I even heard someone shout, "Are you insane, Sideswipe?" Just after that, there'd been a rather large explosion nearby and we came to a halting stop. Seconds later, I heard someone give the order, "Decepticons! Retreat!" All sounds of war came to a close and the air was filled with dozens of jets flying away. It took a minute later for the compartment I was hidden in to open the large hand to pull me out.

Optimus, I remember Bumblebee called him, smiled at me slightly. "Subspace pockets." All the others gathered around in the eerie silence. My ears were ringing, and it was amazing to think just moments ago they'd all been fighting. It happened so fast, my heart was still going a hundred miles an hour. "Are you alright Sam?" he asked me worriedly.

"Why do you ask that? You know he'll just lie." the red and white one rolled his optics.

"I'm fine." I was in shock, I had no idea what just happened.

"Told you. Give him here, I'll check the boy for injuries." he held out a hand. I was handed over willingly. I looked around almost franticly until I seen Bumblebee hovering nearby with a worried expression. I jumped as a flat red light flickered to life, running down me, and back up. It did this once more before flickering out of existence.

"How is he?" Bee asked anxiously. The medic gave him a look and he backed up a step. Only then did he answer.

"He has a fractured rib, but that's it. Give me a moment." he handed me back to Optimus. "Probably from the stunt you two pulled." he glared at the twins.

"Hey, we saved him from that 'con!" the red one objected. "He's probably the one to hurt the boy." They all ignored them as they worried over me.

I jumped when the black and white one lowered his head to me and spoke to the medic. "He's bad? How do you feel?" the second was for me.

"He'll live." the medic called.

"Uh..." I stared, he jabbed me in the ribs and I flinched. "Ow."

"There's your answer." the yellow one, Sunstreaker, laughed.

"Leave him alone Prowl." Bumblebee cut in. "He doesn't remember anything from before. The only thing keeping him from freaking out on you all is the fact he still trusts us as he did before." he took me from Optimus.

"I'd still freak out," the red one started, "At Ratchet's face." the medic zapped him with something, making him shout in surprise and pull back. "Hey, that hurt." he whined amazingly. They were just fighting enemies that wanted to kill them!

"Sam, let me re-introduce you to Ratchet, Ironhide, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Prowl, and Optimus Prime." he gestured to them each in turn.

"Hi?" I shivered as I started to break out of shock.

"Hm, he's not quite like he was before." Prowl mused.

"Last time, he met you on the base. There was no deathly battle going on." Bumblebee defended. "He's more likely in shock from the battle than anything because of you."

"Ah..." I still tried to make my brain and mouth work in sync.

"While the boy still can't talk," Ironhide started, turning to Bumblebee, "Where'd you find him? Can he still shoot an M3-"

"No." bee interrupted him. "He will not be taking up arms again." he held me tighter and I relaxed a bit. The twins started laughing and Optimus sighed, speaking with Ratchet and Prowl. I doubt anyone noticed my reaction.

"He's great though! I watched him take down an F-22 Decepticon." Ironhide objected.

"That was a virtual reality." Bee said seriously.

"So? Could've been real if you'd've ever let him have a gun during battle."

"No." Bee insisted, ending the conversation.

Ratchet stepped up, apparently ready to treat me. "Alright, Bumblebee. We can do this the hard way, or the easy way. You know the drill." Bee looked down at me with a frown before reluctantly handing me over.

"Why is he on the moon anyways?" Prowl asked, distracting my guardian. Ratchet started doing something to the side of me that hurt pretty badly. I hadn't noticed until I started coming out of shock. I flinched and he flicked me upside the head.

"Sit still." he ordered. I obeyed automatically and noted Bee didn't do a thing. I got the feeling he didn't take anyone hitting me. Evidentially, Ratchet is the exception. I'm guessing Ratchet will be the exception on many occasions.

"He and his family are testing the moon's capability for sustaining life as Earth might." Bee answered, glancing towards us.

"What? Do they miss us so much they're ready to start kicking their own kind off Earth?" Ironhide started bitterly.

"No." Bumblebee said quickly. "They're starting to colonize on up here."

"I knew they'd advance in their own time." Optimus said proudly. "They are much closer to being wise."

"Prime, they're only advancing technologically. They're probably having to move off the Earth because they've nearly drained it of its resources." Sideswipe sighed.

"No, I doubt that. But as they advance in technology, their species must mature. Otherwise, they'd've wiped themselves out by now." Optimus pointed out.

"I still don't think they're likely to be any closer to being 'wise' as you define it." Sunstreaker sided with his brother.

"Wise, smart, and mature are all three very different things." Ratchet put his two-cents in. He shifted me to start on my other side.

"I still foresee the only human to have all three traits, in every sense of the words, to be Sam. At least for the _next_ century." Sideswipe mused.

"Yeah, he's got them better than you." Prowl stated smoothly. Everyone ignored his statement, and the look Sideswipe shot him.

"They may not be mature," Optimus defended my race, "but they are learning. They are smart, you cannot dispute that. They have progressed rapidly. Which means they come closer to either the turning point of their society, or their downfall. Hopefully for them, it will not require losing their home." Optimus said sadly. "Then, they will learn what things they should value and what things they should just forget. They will be wise then."

"And they'll understand all those useless speeches you gave." Ironhide added.

"Did we hit our downfall, or our turning point?" Sunstreaker asked.

"I believe we are still going down, but we're going down fighting," Optimus started and Bumblebee finished it.

"Or we're still turning around." He'd been watching Ratchet work on me worriedly, not bothering with conversation. They all fell silent at the revelation. At least, until Ratchet finished with me.

"Given fate has seen fit to return the boy to us," he began, shifting me so I was more comfortable, "I would strongly suggest the latter."

"Yoink." the serious moment was gone as Sideswipe stole me away and ran closer to the wall.

"Sides!" Bee growled, nearly ready to attack. I was suddenly tossed and caught by Sunstreaker, my guardian quickly switched to chase after him.

"You guys are so serious, we're just trying to loosen things a few notches. Shouldn't we be rejoicing Sam is back?" Sunstreaker grinned at me. I was relaxed, trusting he wouldn't drop me or anything. "We are officially inviting you to be on our team for the next prank war."

"Bumblebee, you are not invited." Sideswipe said very formally before cracking up.

"Give him back." Bumblebee ignored him and gained more ground on us. I smiled at him, these two didn't stand a chance. I was suddenly flying through the air again.

"Catch, Sides!" Sunstreaker shouted. It was a larger hand, however, that snagged me out of the air. Optimus brought me down and turned to the two twins, who migrated together.

"I suggest you wait to drive Bumblebee insane until after we've re-convinced his parents we mean the boy no harm." he didn't give me back to Bumblebee though. "Which direction do you live, youngling?" he asked me warmly. Well, I could have said normally. It sounded like it could easily be his normal tone of voice.

I glanced upward toward Earth, then decided I knew what he meant and pointed the exact opposite way of the wall. "Just over there." He smiled and nodded, glancing toward Earth himself.

"I'm sure your parents are worrying about you by now." He started forward, making up everyone's minds. They all fell in step around us. Bumblebee walked closely on the same side Optimus set me on his shoulder. He looked up at me affectionately.

"Hey, Bee." Ironhide, on his other side, captured his attention. "Do you know if Lennox is back?"

"Look out ahead!" two identical vehicles, one red and the other yellow, raced from behind us all, breaking up the group. They did a few stunts to keep from running too far ahead.

"As annoying as they are," Optimus started, glancing at me while Bee and Ironhide started talking, "I'm glad to see them back to their old selves. They'll settle down soon. Ever since you died, they weren't quite as enthusiastic as they are now." I hummed in acknowledgement. I'd heard plenty about how I'm the human that changed all their lives. You'd think I was a saint.

"Bumblebee says things were allot different."

"He didn't even know the half of it. When he requested this sector, he nearly broke off all contact with the rest of us. He's just been watching Earth, ignoring how bad things really were."

"How bad?" I asked timidly. I wasn't sure I wanted to know. He sighed, waiting a few steps before speaking.

"I estimate the rest of our species won't live a full life cycle. The Decepticons longer than us though. Without our previously limited resources, we'll all perish prematurely. At the loss of you, we slipped. The Decepticons attacked and managed to take every Energon cube we had."

"Optimus." Ratchet turned around in front of us all, causing everyone to stop. The twins walked back to us to see what was going on. Ratchet was staring at Optimus as if he were insane. "Surely you aren't blind to what flows through the boy's veins?"

"What are you talking about Ratchet?" Bee demanded, stepping forward.

"You've had the boy for months, and you mean to tell me you haven't run one scan? Even a standard probing scan would pick up on what your boy radiates." Ratchet spoke in disbelief.

Optimus took me down off his shoulder and scanned me for himself, aware Ratchet wasn't about to talk. He froze and Bee easily snatched me from his open palm. I was quickly getting freaked out. As soon as he'd finished, I dove to huddle closer. What's going on? Why is all three of them staring at me in awe?

"What?" I asked nervously. I trembled slightly under the pressure. Bee shifted me closer, his grip gentler and more secure.

"Through your veins," Ratchet started. All the unknowing optics held closely to him, "runs Energon."

* * *

><p>I know, it was very long. Probably the longest chapter I have ever written in my entire life here on FF. I just wanted to keep going and going. When I wrote this on paper, I didn't leave very many places to stop. Well, I don't expect you readers would complain. I think this one really makes up for the incredibly short one earlier.<p>

I already said I'm using the War for Cybertron versions of them, so I guess you could imagine a yellow version of Sideswipe and, you know, change him to be Sunstreaker, and you would have an idea of him. As for Prowl, use your imagination. I am personally just going with his normal G1 self, but that's just me.

Please review, this is when it gets better. I doubt I'll update again for a while, I've got to go back home tomorrow.


	7. Chapter 7

Hi, here's another. I'll make this short. I'd like to thank those who have already reviewed this fic- BELLA X STARFIRE7745231, Peaceful Dragon Rose, LdyGossamer, Blood Shifter2, and BellatriD.

I don't own anything here, and I hope you enjoy it.

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><p>"But that isn't possible!" Prowl objected. "Energon is toxic to humans. Acidic. Remember, before? Some was injected into his system and he nearly died within hours."<p>

"Surely you noticed this before, Bumblebee? Sam?" Ratchet looked between us for an explanation. I was just numb with shock, what could this mean? I'm sure I already know, but I wouldn't even think it until he said it.

"Notice what?" Bee asked. For we all knew Ratchet did not refer to _their_ lifeblood flowing in _my_ veins.

Ratchet took me gently from Bee. I got the feeling Bumblebee also already knew. But, he was also in shock. Ratchet surprised us all be cutting my arm. It was small, but it certainly made Bee flare rage. Bu he kept himself contained, trusting Ratchet had a good explanation.

"He bleeds red, but quickly repairs himself." We all watched as my cut literally sewed itself back together. Within seconds, there wasn't even a little pink scar. That's new.

"Ratchet, you've damaged his suit." Optimus fretted, making a grab to take me. Ratchet pulled me away. I'd felt the pressure change around me, but it wasn't unpleasant. And my hood was separate from the rest, so breathing air was unharmed.

"It doesn't matter, he doesn't need it." Ratchet removed my hood too quickly for me to stop in mid breath. I felt pressure change again, but again, nothing happened. After a moment of stilled breath by everyone, I took another breath.

"Wha-" I stopped. My voice was all the same, and I wasn't blowing up like a balloon and exploding. I just sat here, staring wide-eyed at Ratchet. I turned my gaze to Bee, who was just as shocked.

"He wasn't born human. The Allspark woks in strange ways, and I have no doubt it is the reason for the boy's return."

"Not human?" my mind froze up and my heart skipped a beat. "What are you talking about?" Bee made to grab me just as Optimus had. Ratchet pulled me away again, to say more. Bee gave him a deadly look. Ratchet stopped at the look.

"Give me, my sparkling." Bumblebee demanded. I could tell normally Ratchet wouldn't do anything of the sorts when he was proving a point. But, I don't think Megatron would mess with him now. Ratchet handed me over and Bumblebee stepped back quickly, holding me closely. I tried to hide in his hands, and he willingly covered me securely.

"His birth parents," Ratchet regained himself, "Did not conceive him as they believe they did. He isn't human, he isn't even part human. He was merely created in his alt form-"

"Are you saying he's a transformer?" Ironhide asked the question we all wondered. For a minute, there was absolutely no one speaking. I could almost hear the crickets back on Earth.

"That's not possible." Sunstreaker repeated Prowls earlier statement.

"I don't know how it could have been done, but it is for sure he is Cybertronian. He was sparked as a pretender and has lived his whole life as such. To the point his systems are that of the perfect pretender's. He has adapted to human food and waist. He doesn't need it, but there is nothing to separate him from humans to those who just observe. As for all pretenders, his energon turns red when leaked, imitating blood."

"But, Sam is human." Bee was in denial. "How could Judy unknowingly, or at all, give birth to-"

"I'm adopted." I finally regained my voice. I'd been thinking it the whole time. Bee fell silent and looked down at me. Bee held me up and they all looked at me.

"What?" he asked, shocked.

"They adopted me, when I was a year old." I looked at them all with wide eyes and shifted closer to Bee.

"Well, that explains allot." Sideswipe mused.

"The Allspark has returned and sent a messenger in the form of our most trusted human. Only you could find us, and get close enough to let us know." Ironhide stared at me in awe.

"But I don't know anything!" I snapped, "I'm not human? How can I not know what I am?" Bee acted quickly to prevent a panic attack, pulling me back. His hand found my back and stroked down once comfortingly. I relaxed more than when it was my head.

"He really is a sparkling." Optimus said softly. "That's a natural calming effect, like a human child's rocking." I'm not only one of them, I was a baby version of them.

"It doesn't matter that you don't know anything." Ratchet said gently, as if to a frightened child. They were suddenly starting to treat me differently, talk to me differently. I stared at him trustingly. "Your energon tells it all."

"I-if I'm Cybertronian," I started, realizing something completely irrational. "How do we know I'm an Autobot? What if I'm a Decepticon?" I asked, starting to freak out again. Bee stroked down my back again and I calmed down, staring up at him both fearfully and trustingly.

"We know you're an Autobot because you are Sam. You would never make the choice to be a Decepticon, therefore you never could be one. The Allspark sparked you a transformer, you chose to be an Autobot. Look at your optics, they're blue. That isn't even indecisive. There is no doubt you are an Autobot." Bumblebee assured me, all the while talking gently and stroking my back lightly. Treating me differently, but it's because they now know I'm a sparkling. They know how to get correct reactions from me. How to calm me and how to talk to me.

I continued to stare with trusting eyes. Of course I'm an Autobot. You have to choose what side you're on, and I was an Autobot since before this life, really.

"We need to find the Allspark. Sam may have seemingly matured in a human life, but he isn't human. He's still a sparkling. With our life-cycle in ratio to the human life-cycle, he isn't even a toddler yet."

"Sixteen years." Ironhide shook his head. "Sixteen Earth years. He's so young. He wouldn't even be able to speak Cybertronian yet, had he been raised on Cybertron."

As unbelievable as this all was, I had no problem believing it. Ridiculous.

"At this stage, sparkling are very untrusting. Sam would trust everyone from his past life equally. But, sparklings become more attached to their caretakers than any other 'bot. That explains why Sam seems to prefer being held by Bumblebee." Optimus started making sense of the situation.

"But, wouldn't his caretakers be his parents?" Prowl pointed out. "They raised him."

"They only took care of him the first sixteen years. He hasn't grown up yet, he hasn't been raised." Optimus reminded. "And a transformer sparkling needs to have a transformer caretaker. Sparklings are very playful, just as human children."

"He hasn't quite been acting his human age, I guess." Sideswipe noted. I took note of this more than they did. If I think about it, most of the stuff I've done since meeting Bumblebee was completely out of character for me. "He hasn't joined in on most of our conversations."

"He's got so many signs of being a sparkling." Sunstreaker mused. "Just wait until Arcee finds out."

"My youngling," Bee held me close and seemed to be in amazement. "has a spark."

"What do we do?" Ratchet asked, curious.

"We have to go to Earth, we have to get the Allspark." Optimus repeated. I suddenly realized what he was saying. It wasn't until they realized I was a sparkling that he seemed so insistent about getting to the Allspark. And something told me it wasn't because my being here was what told them it was there. I would have expected for them to stop cooing over the fact I was a sparkling before worrying about the Allspark. There must be something I'm missing.

"What of the boy? I refuse to leave him and his parents won't give him up without a fight. How are we going to make it so he does have a transformer caretaker when he has human parents?" Bumblebee asked.

"The boy's custody must be transferred to you. I'm sure we can find a way to convince them that's what's best for the boy." Optimus looked to me affectionately.

"Prime is right." Ratchet nodded stiffly. "And we _do_ need to find the Allspark soon. Sparklings can only go a maximum of a decade and a half, Earth years ironically, without an energon supply. After that their systems shut down over a two-year course. They can't sustain themselves as we can." My heart, spark, picked up. What? I'm a sparkling, and my systems are shutting down?

"Sam is sixteen." Bee said slowly. "You mean to say that his systems have already begun to shut down?"

Ratchet nodded. "Yes. He's going into spark arrest. Even if he tried, he couldn't transform now. His processers have dulled to below the average human-" my grades were dropping, "his reflexes are slower and his protoform wears down quicker." I quickly went from top of my gym class to not being able to beat my own dad in a race. "And he needs to recharge more often, to preserve the little energy he has."

Mom and Dad blamed my sleeping in all the time and everything else on my being a teenager. At least now I know the reason I've got to go to bed early every night. I couldn't even stay up for New Years this year.

"We need to find the Allspark." Bee repeated Optimus and Ratchet. "How long does he have again?"

"Two years after his fifteenth birthday." Ratchet replied.

"To the day?" Bee asked nervously. Everyone else watched worriedly, realizing the situation was more that meets the eye. When they first got here, they just thought the Decepticons were returning.

"To the day." Ratchet nodded gravely. Bumblebee looked down at me again with a frantic look. I looked up at Bee's sad face, he knew how short a time it was until my next birthday.

I had to change the subject. "What about my parents?" I brought them all back to this topic. They looked at me with a somewhat sad look. They all knew when my birthday was, likely. "If Bumblebee's getting custody of me now, how are you going to make them hand me over?"

"We'll find a way. If we convince them it is in your best interest to have a Cybertronian caretaker, they will give in. They also want what's best for you." I looked down and away from Optimus.

"How will you convince them that? How can you prove to them I'm not human if I can't do anything until I get energon?"

"He's right. What part of him will give them proof?" Prowl rationalized.

"His 'blood' is acidic to them." Sunstreaker helped.

"I'd prefer to do this without needing to injure the boy." Bee said stiffly.

"Sorry, just starting the list." he frowned.

"But Sunstreaker is right." Bee did a double take on Optimus as if he were insane.

"Prime..."

"We know of little that will prove to them that Samuel is one of us. While he is going into spark arrest at least. Every possibility must be taken into account." Bee pouted, but objected no more. He just pulled me closer.

"He heals as well as quickly as we do." Ratchet added. Bee glared at the ground at the mention of another that would require me being injured in the first place.

"I don't suppose they'd take his irises as proof?" Sideswipe asked.

"Blue is a very common color for human eyes." Bumblebee answered quickly. They sat this like I'd had a different color before.

Out of curiosity, "What was my eye color before then?"

"Green." Bumblebee answered quickly. No one seemed to find this strange. Well, that was weird.

"They can't know the energy he radiates as we do. They haven't any scanners, and they won't accept data from which they don't understand." Ratchet mused. I huddled closer, letting my eyes droop. I've been awake much longer than I would have been otherwise. My actions caught Ratchet's attention. "He's tired. When did he wake?"

"I don't know, I just met him halfway to the base." Bumblebee shrugged.

"Around eleven." I yawned.

"It's only six. He's nearly out of energy. Our kind can go longer without recharging, even when our young take 'naps' like human young." Optimus reminded. So, every other night I slept was just a nap?

"I'm going to take him back to the house. His parents ought to be worried anyways." Bumblebee sighed. "We'll sort this out in the morning. Sam needs to be there when they meet you, and it shouldn't take us long to find the Allspark, when we know it's on Earth. We also know the government doesn't have it, Lennox would have told us."

"If they're still doing what Will started." Ironhide reminded. Optimus nodded.

"I'm sure they are. In fact, I'd bet it's William himself that's there now." Ironhide perked at this. The guy running our mission back on Earth's name is Will. I yawned again. Bumblebee set me down and transformed. I hurried inside. "Will you be staying at the house, or returning to the base?" Optimus asked.

"I'm staying with the boy." He shut the door and I buckled in. He drove away, I could hear the twins calling after us.

"Goodnight!" "Sweet dreams!" "Beware of bed bugs!" "Ow!" I think the last wasn't for our benefit.

As I stepped in to the airlock, he transformed behind me. "Straight to bed, sparkling." he spoke strictly. I smiled at him and nodded. But, I had different plans. I already had an idea on how to find the Allspark.

"Sammy!" I was crushed in a hug as I turned the corner. "You were gone so long, and we heard noises..." Mom worried, pulling back and looking at my face. She didn't find it weird I wasn't wearing my hood. I could have taken it off when the airlock opened. It still hung on to the back of my suit, banging against the tank.

"I'm alright." I said quickly as she noticed my expression. I'm not sure what was in it, but I knew it wasn't something that backed up my words. "You know Bumblebee? Remember how he said there were more Autobots coming?" I asked, not knowing if he'd said this in front of them or not. Either way, Dad nodded in a way that he understood what I was talking about. That doesn't mean he actually remembers though. "They're here. You'll meet them tomorrow. You heard them fighting off more of the bad guys, the Decepticons."

"Where were you during this battle?" Mom demanded worried. She looked me over. I pulled her attention back to me, shifting my arm so she couldn't see the tear in my suit. I had no idea how we were going to explain that. This was my only available suit. They take two days to clean, and my other one was still in the wash.

"In the middle of it. But they kept me from getting hurt. See?" I spread my arms, aware my ribs were also long since healed. My tear was angled away from them. Mom took this as an invitation for another hug.

"My poor boy." She cooed.

"Don't baby me." I muttered, dropping my arms and thinking about the irony. I only said it because it was expected. What was Bumblebee just doing all day?

"I know, I know." she pulled back again and moved my hair over my forehead. I glanced out the window to see Bumblebee looking amused and nodding to my room.

"What is that doing here?" Dad demanded and Mom jumped, stepping away from me.

"_He_," I stressed, realizing that if they called him an it, they were calling me an it, "Is here to protect the house." It sounded better than he just came here to protect me.

"Why is he watching us?" Mom acknowledged the 'him'. Bee pulled away from the window, but was definitely still listening.

"He wants me to go to bed." I yawned.

"You do look tired. You need to go to bed." I rolled my eyes at Mom repeating what I just said Bee wanted.

"Judy, it's only six." Dad objected.

"Hey," I started, catching the attention of both my parents. "How old was I when you got me?" that question usually gets her going.

"Oh, jeez." Dad hurried into the other room. Mom's eyes lit up, she loved talking about the miracle of finding me and how unique of a child I was.

"Only a year." she started excitedly. "You were so special. You were talking early and walking late, but even as a child you were such a little ball of energy. I don't know when you grew out of it. I don't think you did." she teased, but I knew the truth in it. My attitude only matured to match a human. But, now that I'm surrounded by my own kind, the group that will be, and already has, taken me in, I have moved back to my natural state of being.

"And it was weird how the adoption people found you on an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. You could have gone to grow up in China, or India, or somewhere in Africa. Of all the places, fate brought you to America-"

"The island was American owned." Dad interjected, Mom continued as if he hadn't spoken. We'd walked into the living room as she spoke. Dad tried to turn up the volume, but once she gave him a look, he put it on mute.

"There was even British island nearby by the same name. Something Spanish, I don't remember what. But, they sent you to America. And by some miracle, they sent you to us. Out in the middle of nowhere, in Tranquility, California." which isn't in the middle of nowhere, but you don't want to argue with my mom when she's ranting. None of this was new to me, but knowing what I knew now made it all a bit more interesting.

"It could have been fate, or destiny. I don't know, but it was certainly a miracle." she sighed. "Not another child anywhere like you." It was certainly something, considering their past selves were my past self's parents. And she has no idea how unique I am. I'm pretty sure I'm the only transformer sparkling in history to be raised for sixteen years as a human on Earth.

"Why does America have an island out there anyways?" I asked, trying to act like my interest on the subject started when she mentioned it. They ate it.

"You know, I never asked." Mom mused.

"They were using it for something about a hundred years ago. Nothing since. I suggested a testing facility for all this space stuff," Dad started, "We were running out of room to work on figuring out how to make an air-tight society without bugs. Whatever they were doing mustn't have been very big. You never read about it in text books. I've seen plenty of news papers from back then. There were two very significant terrorist attacks. Everyone thought a big war was coming from some masked country, but nothing ever came from it. Whoever it was, they had something against Los Angeles and Egypt."

"If you really want to know," Mom started, "You can ask Lennox when we video in later."

"No, that's alright." I yawned again, ending the conversation. "I better hit the sack before Bee decides to come in after me." I turned and left, not missing the shocked expressions on their faces. I couldn't help it, I laughed.

After locking the door and changing out of my suit, I sat down heavily on my bed. I hoped they would have a suitable excuse as for why I'll be wearing my street cloths outside tomorrow.

I found myself staring at my hand after a minute, mainly at the little blue lines on the underside of my wrist. They weren't as noticeable as usual, as could be passed for as normal. This was the first time I realized what I was looking at wasn't blood.

It wasn't the stuff doctors buy for their patients. It wasn't that AB positive or whatever. This wasn't the stuff vampires drink in the stories. It wasn't what Mom got all over the counters four years ago when her hand slipped while she was cutting potatoes. It wasn't the little red lines in Dad's eyes when they're bloodshot.

This was energon. The stuff the Autobots leak when they're injured. The stuff they spill from the Decepticons during war. The stuff that stains their blades, both Autobot and Decepticon, in either the name of freedom, or destruction. This is the stuff they need to stay alive.

This was the stuff I need to stay alive. This is the stuff I'm not getting, that's why my systems are going off line.

I closed my eyes and felt my pulse. Even without a heart and blood, I had a pulse. I had a spark and energon, which meant I was just as alive. But not for long likely.

I curled up under the covers, dimming the lights and wishing I was outside with Bee.

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><p>I made a mess up earlier, so I'm going to give a little timeline. They've been on the moon for 11 12 months. This day was the 18th of May. Sam's birthday is the 3rd of June, and the day they got there on the moon, and the day they're going to leave, is the 30th of June. This all means they've only got 17 days to find the Allspark.

It was less confusing to me when I hunted down a 2111 calendar, so I just thought I'd give that little bit of information.

Please review, I thank those who already have again.


	8. Chapter 8

I am so sorry about the extremely long wait. I have been working on a book I hope to publish, and planned to get back to this story after I finally got settled with my book. You know, have a few chapters that I can go back and read again and not want to completely change it. But, the tablet I was using to write broke and down the drain went all my work. So... so much lost!

So, I've come back here to update. Everyone can thank Kottori for this, you definitely motivated me to get back on this story. Honestly, I had no idea I left it at such a cliff hanger. Just finding out Sam has seventeen days to convince his parents to hand over custody, go back to Earth, and find the Allspark before his spark gives out? Yes, if I were a reader and not the writer here, I'd want to give the author of this story a piece of my mind.

Onward to the story! I sincerely hope you like it, and hope it was worth waiting soooo long to read. I don't own a thing save for the plot.

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><p>I didn't wake the next morning until Mom came in to wake me. With her sitting at my bedside, hand on my forehead, I wanted her to go away so I could go back to sleep.<p>

"Sam, you're burning up!" Mom felt my cheek, getting worried.

"I'm fine." the events of the day before started to come rushing back, and my first coherent thought was, 'sixteen days'. Just over two weeks, is it enough time?

"No, I'm serious Sam. You have a fever. You aren't going out today, I want you to stay inside." she didn't seem too off-put about that, however. Not going outside meant not going to Bumblebee.

I moved to sit up, pushing her hand away. My eyelids were still heavy, but I knew enough now that I couldn't keep sleeping. "I've got to go out."

"You don't have to do anything. Let me go get you some medicine." she insisted, trying to make me lay back down again.

"I've got to get up. I already know I'm sick, and Bee's going to help." I couldn't possibly tell her everything here and now. She'd freak out and I'd never get past the bedroom door.

"How could that alien possibly help? You just need some rest- hey!" she objected when I got to my feet. I hadn't even bothered to change last night, but I wasn't too worried about wearing fresh cloths today either. That was the least of my worries, as I went for the door. My suit was laying in the corner, rendered useless.

"You'll see. You and Dad need to come too. We've got to tell you something important." But Dad was nowhere to be seen in the living room, or the kitchen, or any of the main rooms that I passed on my way to the air lock. "Where is Dad?" his suit is hanging right there, so he hasn't gone out.

"Checking in with Earth. They're giving us a status update with the situation on Mars." Last time I heard about that, I'd not paid any attention to it and merely wanted to be home; on Earth. Now, I couldn't help but to wonder, what if it's Decepticons on Mars? Nevertheless, I switched directions and headed straight for the conference room. It's on the other side of the house secluded so that distractions don't become a common thing. Usually I only send in my reports and progress, but I never care to look through a screen to a place I want to be. It's like putting a kid in a candy shop with all the sweets behind glass, then telling him he can't have any.

"Don't go in there." Mom caught up to me. "They're talking classified stuff."

I ignored her and walked in. Both the man on the screen and Dad looked at me in surprise, stopping short of whatever conversation they were having.

"What are you doing in here now?" Dad demanded, looking no short of annoyed.

"You haven't told them, have you?" I asked, sure that would be a bad thing right now. No idea why.

"Not yet."

"Told us what?" Lennox demanded, confused. I've always kind of liked him, even if he did bribe me into living on the moon.

"Get out of here, Sam. We're discussing some very important things right now." Dad brushed me off.

"We need to talk. Now. Bumblebee and I have something to tell you two, and it can't wait." I insisted.

"It can, and it will." Dad insisted, but Lennox's startled look caught my attention. I looked at the screen.

"What?"

"Bumblebee? Is that a code name? No one else went up there with you three, right?" he was confused.

"Right." I said, maybe too quickly.

"I've got to go." the video chat cut out without any better warning, leaving Dad with no excuse not to go outside.

He stood, groaning. "This better be good." he turned the video feed off and grabbed his jacket. They both always complain about how cold it is outside on the moon, but it's not really that bad. But, then again, I'm not human to compare what I feel to what they feel, am I? "So where's the fire?" he asked as we joined Mom by the air lock. She was already suited up, as Dad reached for his.

"Where is your suit, Sam?" I yawned and blinked.

"My room." I didn't even bother to give them an excuse, I just walked into the air lock, let the interior door shut before they could pull me out, then felt it as the air all left the room. Mom and Dad, the latter half way into his suit and looking ridiculous, were freaking out and banging on the glass. I walked outside and looked back, shrugging. The exterior door slid shut, awaiting another exit or entrance.

Letting out another yawn, in the very low air level here, was more like just flexing my throat and raising my chest, very unsatisfying. But I couldn't dwell on it much, because Mom and Dad were upon me, both in their suits, grabbing onto me desperately.

"Sam! Get inside, what are you doing?" Dad pulled, but I yanked back.

"I'm fine. This is actually what they wanted to talk to you about." I glanced around for Bee, knowing I wasn't stupid enough to just walk out there again. He nearly had my head the first time. I seen him walking from around the side of the house, and started towards him. They say a sparkling is attached to their caretaker, I don't care. All I know is I didn't want to be here, I wanted to be there.

"How are you breathing?" Mom wondered, terrified for me.

"Same way I am." Bumblebee took me up. "Samuel says he's adopted?"

"Yes, what about it? There's nothing wrong with that, he's still our son!" they were very defensive.

"Nothing, but, we have reason to believe that Sam isn't human at all." he waited for their reactions. None came. They didn't believe him for a second.

I yawned again.

"Look, he doesn't need to breath like a human. He doesn't care for food because he doesn't need it, and he used to be more energy-filled than normal children? Learn faster, great memory? That's because our processors work more like a computer than a human brain. But, lately he's been slipping, right? Falling grades, slower reaction, less energy?"

"He's a teenager." Dad shrugged. "They all do that."

"Not Sam. We believe he is a sparkling of our origin. Sparklings may survive for three deca-cycles before they need energon. Fifteen Earth years. After that, they go into spark arrest. Before the war, they received energon regularly for an entire vorn. But, Sam's sixteen Earth years and he's never had energon. He's very close to having his spark give out."

"You've got to be kidding me. I think I'd know if my son isn't human. You've done something to him, that's how he's breathing!" Mom exclaimed. "Come on, this is ridiculous."

I was getting comfortable, now satisfied to be back with Bumblebee.

"Sam isn't human." Bumblebee insisted. "He needs proper care. He had to have been created by the Allspark, which means it's intact and it's on Earth. Please, Ron. Judy. We need to get Samuel some energon before his birthday."

"I can't believe this. This is all just some elaborate scheme to get home, isn't it? Sam, it's only forty-two days until we go back. You can't just wait a little bit longer?" Dad objected.

"We wait forty-two days, I'm dead." I responded, not missing the fact that he had a count down going already.

Bumblebee flinched. "Some of the others have arrived. They're at Moon Base Three right now." he started again. Moon Base Three? What happened to Two and One? "Our chief medical officer is among them. If you want him to explain it all, we can go there now. He can tell you exactly how a pretender works, and how Sam can appear so human, because I don't know all the specifics."

"You're serious?" they finally started to catch on. We both nodded. "This is real. My baby boy is an alien?"

"We need to find the Allspark. Will you two accompany us to the base?" Bumblebee asked formally.

"If Sam trusts you..." Dad began, looking nervous. The urgency of the situation was starting to get to them.

"I guess we will too." Mom finished. "I just can't believe this. How are you supposed to find this sparkler thingy to save Sammy?"

"Sam." I grumbled under my breath as Bumblebee let me down. I took the spot where the driver's seat would be if this were a normal car he transformed into. Mom and Dad stayed together in the back, looking nervous and worried.

"Sam, are you alright?" Mom leaned forward to put a hand on my shoulder. I looked back and nodded.

"I'm... as fine as I could be right now." shrugging, I turned forward again. I knew this giant crater like the back of my hand by now. Over there is the cave full of rock formations that would have crumbled from the unstable position they'd been a few months ago. Along that ridge is a number of tightly packed hills like a ripple, filled with so many small holes, the rock must have liquefied and frozen again in a matter of seconds.

That direction is the flat plane where I first met Bumblebee in this form. I knew every corner of this place except for where the walls get tallest, and the interference is strongest. When my camera blacked out, it must have been from the base here. Which is also the reason they couldn't map this area via satellite. Their stuff obviously works out here; his camera, the one I watched him beat up those Decepticons with, it worked fine.

"So, this whole area is an alien base?" Dad asked, looking out the window.

"I networked some tunnels through the natural walls of the crater, the actual base is closer in on the crater heart." Bumblebee answered. That direction is the only place I hadn't gone yet. I'd have to camp out for a few days to get any work done out here. Well, unless I've got a friend that's a car... But, I'm probably not going to be doing much scouting anymore, am I?

I yawned, again.

"Don't go to sleep, Sam." his voice was coming from a speaker where the radio would be in a normal car.

"Why not?" it was Dad that objected.

"Because, when you sleep, your spark uses less energy. In his condition, it doesn't quite 'wake up' with him. It stays on the low-energy output." Bumblebee answered willingly. "This is all my fault, I'm so sorry Sam."

"It's your fault I'm a transformer that needs energon?" I asked, tired.

"No. I've been waiting for Optimus's say on what to do for so long... I should have run scans. I should have seen this earlier, we would have had more time."

"Who?" Mom demanded, not liking to be left out of the loop.

"Our leader. He awaits us at the base." which was coming up pretty quickly now. We were beyond the area I knew now, and he was starting to slow. Just up ahead, the walls on either side of us curved inward to meet. Here they were huge, bubbling out with an odd, non-moon rock color. The source of the impact, it still remained.

"Here we are." he came to a full stop and opened the doors. Mom and Dad stared at Bumblebee as he transformed, faces full of amazement, but there was something else there too. A vague, implacable, familiarity. I knew the feeling; like you've seen this happen plenty of times before, but never in this life time. Maybe a dream in a dream years ago, or maybe in a past life.

"Wow." was all Dad had to say. Bee crouched down to offer a ride to more than just me. He easily placed me on his shoulder, but my parents hesitated, unsure. "Can't we walk?"

"Our ships are designed for Cybertronian usage, not human. Everyone on board is used to humans being around, but here, it is easier and faster to move this way." Bumblebee insisted logically. Unsure and still hesitant, they relented and climbed up. He didn't put them up to his shoulder as he had me, but I could understand why without asking; I seemed to have this natural ability to balance up here perfectly. I assume I did this a lot, probably with most of them and not just Bee, but I could tell how difficult it would have been to get used to.

I'd already been in here a bit, but that didn't prepare me for seeing it all like this. The clustered group of halls and rooms. It wasn't a very big space, I realized, for many of them to live here. This had to be a detachment from the main ship (Didn't he call it the 'Ark' the other day?) or a smaller ship all on it's own.

"This is where Sam used to go all the time?" Mom remembered the same conversation as I did.

"Oh, no. The Ark is probably making rounds near Cybertron right now. This is my scouting vessel." Bee answered easily, going through the rooms. "But, he did come here a few times too."

As he said that, I caught a glimpse in one of the rooms we passed, and I swear I seen a small clutter of dusty human things.

"Okay, I'm hearing a lot about past lives and how you already know us and all that," Dad started, getting all our attention, "but I'm getting the vibe that it didn't end well. I hate asking this, but, how did Sam die, exactly? And, will this happen again?"

Mom stopped her frantic look to take in everything, as Bumblebee flinched at the question. After a moment, when he didn't answer, I decided to speak up.

"You don't have to answer that." he looked to me with relief, and I couldn't help my own curiosity at the answer.

"Sam! What if this is all just going to happen again? Obviously something bad happened, we wouldn't have thrown them off planet if nothing happened." Since he does work with the government, he would know better than the average citizen. "I want to know if it will happen again, and if you're in any danger."

"It won't happen again." Bumblebee answered with conviction. "I can tell you with certainty, it won't happen again." but he didn't elaborate from there, leaving both my parents unsatisfied. I just wanted to know, what horrible end did I come to last time?

But Bumblebee wasn't going to talk quite yet. His free hand came up to rub my head, but this time it seemed to be more for his comfort than mine. I yawned and closed my eyes for a minute. He poked me in the ribs.

"Don't go to sleep."

"Yeah, yeah." I tried to wiggle away, but he didn't attack again. Mom and Dad were looking up at me, worried. They believe Bumblebee by now, I think, but they really don't want to.

"If Sam is an alien," Mom began, looking to Bee now, "How come he looks nothing like you?"

"Sam was sparked as a pretender. Pretenders are transformers whose alternative forms are organic in appearance. Sparklings are small enough to pass as human, no matter the protoform build." he answered easily. "But until he gets some energon, his systems are all going offline, so he is unable to do most things a healthy sparkling could."

"How many others are here?" Dad wondered, interrupting Mom's train of thought.

"Six." he stopped in front of a closed door and opened it up. They were all standing around the monitor, blocking it from view. I only knew it was a monitor they were all staring at because this was one of the two rooms I'd already been in. In the corner, there was another exit into a rocky tunnel. The door shut behind us as we came in, and Bumblebee let my parents down on the counter that went along side of the group, then curved between them and the screen. They walked closer, hesitantly, but Bee just stepped into the crowed.

"There you two are." Sunstreaker greeted. "It took you long enough."

"We brought guests." Bumblebee turned to speak with him, but I nearly fell over forwards, staring at the now visible screen that Ironhide and Optimus were talking to.

"Will?!" I heard Dad gasp in surprise from the other side of the group.

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><p>It's a little short, but I'm sure that's better than what I've been updating... nothing. New developments around every corner here. Sam's having trouble staying awake, the parents are upset, but they're starting to believe, and Ironhide is (kind of) reunited with his human friend. Wait, what now? How long has this been going on? Hmmmm... Guess you'll have to wait for the next chapter for some answers. I do hereby swear that you will not have to wait two years for the next update. Not even one.<p>

I do hope that my writing style hasn't changed too much since I last updated, because I have been writing countless tries on my book. If you notice it has changed, I certainly hope for the better. I also hope that I'm back into the right 'feel' for this story, and that it doesn't sound too forced. I know I have most of this story written down in a notebook, which is actually just one more chapter from where I left off, but from now on I'm ignoring that story. It was sort of anticlimactic and unworthy. You guys deserve more after waiting for so long, and so, I give you a new twist that promises for more excitement.

If you do want to know how the original of this story ended, keep reading. If you think that it will ruin this story, stop now. It doesn't have anything to do with where I plan this story to go, save for the general idea, but I'm not giving spoilers away.

***Sam's parents hand him over easily, the Autobots go to Earth and find the Allspark. That's pretty much it. Great, right? No conflict at all, no climax, and very boring.

R&R Reviews are magic chapter-bringers.


	9. Chapter 9

I expect this was a bit quicker than the last time. Honestly, it would have been up sooner, if it weren't for the fact that, while I have had access to the internet nearly every day (I don't have the internet at my house, but during the Summer I'm rarely at my house) I haven't had any access to spell check. I have improved quite a bit since I first came on this site, but, I'm pretty sure you don't want to read any of my chapters before spell check gets to it. I tend to type fast and get sloppy...

I don't own Transformers. Hope you all like the chapter.

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><p>"You're in on this?" Mom and Dad were no longer concerned about the many giant alien robots standing in close range. Their entire focus was on the man in the screen. William Lennox, our main Earth contact and head of the 'colonize the Moon' project.<p>

"Surprise." he smiled, his head alone was enlarged to his normal height. "I actually just met them for the first time before you came in."

"You've got to be kidding me." Mom scoffed, but I was busy piecing it all together in my head. The amount of time from when he ended the transmission earlier to now, was that enough time for him to get home? In the background, I recognized a picture on the wall of his wife, Sarah, with their newborn baby, Annabelle. She's a year old now.

"William's family is an old family with the government." Optimus Prime spoke up. "When we first landed on Earth, we became acquainted with another William Lennox. When we let, we gave that Lennox a transmission device that could hail us on the primary Autobot frequency should the need arise."

"Yeah, this thing's been in the family forever, with a list of names on the main screen." Lennox nodded. "A bunch of weird names under the heading 'Aliens' and the name 'Witwicky' under the heading 'Other names to know'. When you," he was looking at Dad, "first joined the space program, I remembered what my dad said. I've never actually booted this thing up, but he told me all the names, and I thought it was familiar."

"So, that's why we got close?" Dad realized. "Because of that transmitter thing?"

"Well, yeah. When you started talking about your son, Sam, I knew he was the one the list was talking about."

"You're whole friendship is based on a lie." Sideswipe laughed. Sunstreaker hit him.

"Have you two told Ron and Judy yet?" Ratchet addressed Bee and I.

"How do you know our names?" Mom demanded as Dad and Will kept talking. Ironhide joined in quickly.

"You two, like Sammuel and William, have been reincarnated." Ratchet answered.

"I told them what Sam is." Bee nodded.

"But not what needs to be done." I added. Ratchet nodded swiftly and looked back to my worried Mom.

"I am Ratchet, chief medical officer. Before we continue, do you believe your son is of our species, or do you require proof?" he asked.

"You better have come up with a better way to prove it." Bumblebee glared. Optimus was standing closer to our circle by the counter now. He shook his head to Bumblebee.

"You know the boy will not sustain any injury." Prime reminded.

"I know..."

"I think I believe you guys." Mom sighed, reluctant. "But what now? Didn't you say something about energy?"

"Energon." Ratchet took over, expert on the matter. "It is the lifeblood of our race, and it may only be created from the same source our sparks were; the Allspark. As fully developed beings, we may survive for several vorn without consuming the substance, though eventually we will weaken and wear down without it. But sparklings require energon consumption far more regularly and generously for proper development and to maintain a strong spark. Since Samuel has never taken energon, his systems and processors work about at the same rate as a human's."

"So, what if he doesn't get this energon stuff?" She asked, not wanting the answer.

"Already, his systems are shutting down and going offline. Even if he does get energon in time, he'll need a number of visits to my medical bay to get him back to perfect health."

"His deadline is sixteen days away." Optimus went on where Ratchet stopped. "So it is essential we return to Earth and locate the Allspark as soon as possible. Every day we wait, more of Samuel's systems go off line." Out of the corner of my eye, I vaguely noticed Prowl tapping a red screen button.

I blinked, taking a few seconds to open my eyes again.

"So, how are you going to find this Allspark?" she asked. I sat upright, putting myself farther from impending sleep.

"That's why I was asking you last night. You said they found me on an American-owned island in the Indian Ocean, right?" They all stared at me.

"No." Ratchet objected. "It couldn't be that easy."

"I'm thinking it is." Optimus sounded happy. "Who would have thought it'd be as simple as that?"

"As what?" Mom demanded. Once they got past the whole 'My son is a sick alien robot, these other ones are coming from nowhere' thing, she and Dad are surprisingly at ease with them around. Not quite as I was, but I suppose that's a different story altogether.

"Diego Garcia." Bumblebee grinned widely.

"I know that name." Will suddenly broke away from his conversation with Dad and Ironhide. He was staring right over at us. "That's that island the government owns. It comes up a lot in budget cut conferences, but no one's touched it in decades."

"Yeah." Dad nodded. "Kind of a waste of space, if they refuse to do anything with it."

"I expect they're keeping it as it was so we'd have somewhere to go if the treaty was ever renewed." Optimus decided. "That's the site of NEST."

"I've heard that somewhere too." Will frowned, but Dad shrugged on this one.

"That's the military branch allied with us. You founded it." Ironhide explained. "It stands for 'Nonbiological Extraterrestrial Support Team'."

"It was disbanded when we left." Optimus added.

I blinked and looked around. "Hey, where did Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, and Prowl go?"

Bee looked at me in surprise. "They left to check out the Decepticon crash site a few minutes ago. Remember?"

I blinked again, going through everything that's happened since we entered the room, then shook my head. I guess I closed my eyes a bit longer than I thought I did.

"You fell asleep." His voice was grave, and I tried to make myself wake up a bit more.

"You can't fall asleep." Ratchet's voice cut in harshly. "It's harder each time for your spark to pick back up again. You keep falling asleep, we won't be able to wake you up."

"No sleeping. Got it." I shook my head and pinched myself. "Ow."

Ratchet shook his head and turned away.

"Ronald, Judy, you are aware that Samuel will need a Cybertronian education?" Optimus took both their attention as I noted Will, Ratchet, and Ironhide started talking about getting onto Earth without the government noticing. Will has some friends in the Meteor Monitoring room (apparently they have a room for that) that might be able to cover for their arrival.

"Well, that makes sense." Mom nodded, probably already knowing where this was going.

"And, he will need one who knows the norm of sparkling development the way you two would a human child."

"I understand this..." Dad was frowning, turning to look at Bumblebee. We were both staying quiet now. "I suggest we discuss this after Sam is healthy again-"

"After he's gotten energon." Ratchet corrected. "It'll take weeks to get him completely healthy again. His health started to go down after the first deca-cycle without a proper check up."

"We'll discuss this then." Mom agreed.

"How soon can we return to Earth?" Bumblebee asked eagerly.

"I'm getting ready to call my friends in MM now. One of them is a senior analyst; she should be able to pull it off." he assured. "I'm going to hail her now, so hold on." the screen went black and we were left to wait anxiously as he spoke with the senior analyst from MM.

It was too quiet, with the suspense drawing. My eyes started to droop once more, and without thinking about it, I rolled my head down.

A giant metal hand came up to wack me upside the head, and on my upper back. I jumped, looking around wildly. Ratchet was glaring at me. I looked to Bumblebee for protection, but he just shrugged. That, of course, made me bounce and Ratchet smirk.

Then back to waiting. If all goes well, I'll be on Earth by the end of the day. The clock, weirdly in Earth time, told me it was four already. I wonder how long this is going to ta-

Prowl was back.

"There's a scouting team here." he said quickly, coming in from the rocky entrance. "The twins stayed back to make sure they stayed away from the house and here."

"Great. Decepticreeps, exactly what we need right now." Ironhide grumbled.

"Any progress here?" Prowl asked, glancing to me.

"Yes. We think the Allspark is at Diego Garcia. Will is making a plan to get us on Earth without the government noticing." Optimus filled him in.

"Why can't the government know?" Dad asked, given he was an employee of the government.

The room fell miraculously silent once more, this time an air of sadness hung about it. No one was willing to talk, but Optimus sighed and stepped up to the plate. I got the feeling he was never one to lie.

"The last month before we left, many things happened. Various terms by which our treaty with the governments of Earth was based upon were broken, and their trust in us failed. We failed them, in many ways. With the Decepticons turned back to Cybertron for unknown reasons, it was agreed upon that it was best for everyone if humans and Cybertronians were to be separated. Our short-lived alliance is a shunned event in the classified history books of Earth."

Mom and Dad decided to leave it be then. I made a mental note to persue the subject; it sounds as if this might have something to do with my past-life death that Bumblebee doesn't want to talk about.

"I hope it isn't too much trouble to do this, we don't have too much time." Ratchet mused, just before the monitor turned back on. Will's face came up, and he cut straight to the point.

"Alright, you're in. I told Maggie to cover six landings in the Pasific Ocean within the next twenty-four hours. She's got it covered, so don't worry about that. Is that enough time?"

"More than enough, to land." Optimus nodded. "Thank you, William. We will hail you again soon, but now, we need to find the Allspark."

"I get ya." Lennox nodded. "Good luck."

"Thank you, again." the screen cut out again, and went to a live feed of Earth. They zoomed in on the Indian Ocean, then to a thin island curled in on itself. It was completely void of naval activity.

"I'm calculating the trajectory now." Prowl announced. "We'll have to try it without our navigation systems, so that the activity doesn't show up on the radar. Not being seen isn't the same as not existing."

"That'll be easy." the twins were back. "How many times have we landed from here to Diego Garcia already?"

"True enough, but then we also had the government's cooperation." Optimus reminded. "Bumblebee, is your scouting vessil in working condition?"

"Yes." he spoke up. Looking to both my parents, he didn't at all notice me slouch where I was. I blinked again. "I'll take you two hom-"

"Sam!" I gasped and shot up, looking around and rubbing the sore spot on the back of my head. Ratchet was glaring at me, and Bumblebee looked worried. We weren't even inside anymore. We were just outside the way we came in. Mom and Dad were on the ground, and it was only the five of us out here.

"What?" I asked, my thought process lagging a bit. I knew all these things, but it didn't quite click until Bumblebee answered.

"You fell asleep again."

"Oh." was all I had to say to that. He let me down on the ground too, and Mom rushed to my side. Can I still call her Mom? Now since she isn't even going to be a legal guardian? Of course she's still Mom, I mean, she did raise me... or, start to raise me apparently.

"Sam." I blinked, frowning. I didn't fall asleep this time! But Dad pointed to the open, waiting door, and I let out a breath again.

"Oh." As I slipped inside, I noticed it was cooler in here than what I remember. I shivered. "What's with the air conditioning?"

Mom and Dad were already inside in the back.

"To keep you from falling asleep again." he answered, taking off. I turned my head to look out the back window, noting Ratchet was transformed and just behind us. Why is he coming again? I thought we were just dropping Mom and Dad off, well, that's what I assumed. We were all going down to Earth, except them, right? They're still staying here, aren't they?

"Once you give Sam some of that energy stuff, you are coming back, right?" Mom asked, having obviously been worrying about that for a while now.

"Yes. We'll return here as soon as possible." Bumblebee responded. "Of course, we plan on remaining here for the duration of your contract, before reopening our communication with the government. Optimus wants to plan ahead, and map out a new treaty before we face them once more. But we certainly couldn't abandon Earth again."

There was weight behind his words I couldn't quite grasp. Was it because my brain was acting a bit sluggish, or were Mom and Dad not catching it either? A quick glance to the back seat told me they apparently weren't even dwelling on that. So, did I imagine the hidden meaning there? Did I dream it?

"So, you aren't taking our son?" Dad asked, hopefully.

"Of course not. But I have every intention of staying with him. Sam, that will be alright, where you live?"

"I live on the moon." I pointed out, literally. I was pointing to our air-tight house that I've called home for what feels like years. He knows that already, so why is he acting like he doesn't know where I live.

"I mean on Earth. Your home on Earth, after you leave the moon."

"After we leave the moon?" I blinked. I yawned. "After we leave the moon..." We've been here forever, I can't imagine there ever being a time after here. I mean, I know it'll come, but, it's so far away. Ever since we got here, I've only wanted to go back to before we came. Now, thinking after... "What is going to come after we leave the moon?" It's so far away, still.

"We're going back to the house in California." Dad answered easily. We were nearly to the house now. "Do some reports at the local astronomy base, get a little publicity..."

"Publicity." Bumblebee suddenly slowed. "That gives me an idea."

He pulled to a stop, and popped the doors open. I didn't move for a moment, frowning out the front window. It didn't even look odd anymore, to see the utter absence of a steering wheel.

"Are you getting out?" Mom asked, poking her head back in.

"What is going to come after we leave the moon?" for some reason, I was panicking.

"Your father already told you. Come on, Sam." she urged, pulling back out of the door. I shook my head and fell out, blinking again.

The next thing I knew, Bee had me up again.

"Stop going to sleep." Oh yeah. Ratchet followed us here. That's probably why the back of my head was hurting again.

"Sorry." I rubbed my head. "Why are we all here?" Mom and Dad were both already going in, but Bee and Ratchet both just stood there, like they were waiting for something to happen.

"The others will have the ship up in an hour. It's been inactive for a while." Bumblebee explained. "So we have some time to spare."

"Time... but it moves sooooo slow!" I complained. Something rubbed my head and I calmed down a bit. "But... what is going to happen after the moon?"

"What do you mean, sparkling?" Ratchet asked, easing up on the tone for a minute.

"When we go back to Earth, everyone is going to be staring at us. We'll be all over the news, I bet we already are. I wouldn't doubt it if all of America knows my name, and I was the tag-along here. We're going to be watched by the world, and, there's no way we can hide what I am during all that." I stared at the house. "Are we going to try and pretend nothing is different, or, am I going to have to become all public?"

They both stared at me in surprise.

"What? I'm not just a brain-dead zombie right now." I shrugged.

"No, I certainly hope not." Ratchet agreed. Bumblebee crouched down to let me back to the ground. I kicked a rock and watched it roll. Then I kicked it again.

"What are you doing?" Bumblebee asked, curious.

"Kicking a rock." I answered, not looking up. I wasn't sure why he put me down, but I didn't question it. We must be here to kill time for a reason, right?

I yawned.

Then, I was cold, wet, and mostly awake.

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><p>Did it live up to your expectations? So, now that we all know what's going on with Sam, and each new day is an entire day closer to the last day, it gets worse. So, he getting real tired, and every time he sleeps, it gets worse. So, that will show.<p>

I find this is easier to write when I'm tired, because then the blacking out and falling asleep makes more sense to me. So, if you can't keep up where he goes to sleep, and what he misses when he does take a short nap, then read it again when you're tired.

If you don't really want to do that, just roll with it then. The question you need to ask now is, what woke Sam up at the end?

R&R Every review gets Sam closer to some Energon.


	10. Chapter 10

So... it's been a while. I know it doesn't mean much after so long, but I'm still going to apologize to anyone who's been patient enough to wait this long for this chapter. I still love this story, and I've actually rewritten this chapter several times. This is the only one I've found I'm somewhat satisfied with, so here I finally post it. Basically, don't expect to have to wait so long for the next chapter...

And thank you all for the reviews! You have everyone who reviewed my story to thank for this chapter. They basically renewed my love for it, just by re-reading the reviews.

I don't own transformers. If I did, the fourth movie wouldn't exist and the third would have gone far differently. Heads would roll, and the fandom would not have been attacked in such a horrific way. I hope you enjoy it.

* * *

><p>Standing with my arms raised and water dripping from my fingers, shivering and completely in shock, I had to admit that my mind was a lot more clear. And under any other circumstances, I'm sure it would have been hilarious to see me get a bucket of cold water dumped on me. But luckily, right now, no one was laughing.<p>

"Was that really necessary?" I asked, wiping my face dry.

"Your processor activity has nearly stabilized. I believe it was." Ratchet informed, dead serious.

"No objections, really? This can't be healthy. Can't I get, pneumonia or something?" I asked, getting increasingly more irritated. Honestly, I believe I have every right to be a bit cranky right now.

"Pneumonia is a human illness. Until we have energon, you need to remain vigilant and do not attempt recharging." Ratchet warned me. "Keep him awake." He turned to Bumblebee with the same tone.

"How long will it take?" Dad asked, putting the bucket down beside him. "This is going to work, isn't it?"

"Samuel will be fine." Ratchet brushed off. "But his processors are now acting too highly without a sufficient amount of energon. You're going to feel lightheaded soon." He looked to me. "And before we land, you have to wear that. Our intentions are to avoid contact with humans until the Allspark is located, but if we are spotted, you are still human to them. And humans don't return from the moon in street cloths." He was motioning to my other suit, which had been in the was before. Dad had brought it out with the bucket and now handed it over. I didn't bother to put it on yet, but slung it over my shoulder.

"Is that everything?" I asked. A space suit and a nice wake-up call. What else do I need?

"Yes." Bumblebee changed the subject quickly, "Sunny and Sides are on their way here. They're going to remain here with you to guard and keep you updated on our progress, alright?"

"Absolutely." Mom sighed in relief. "Those other ones, the evil ones-"

"Decepticons."

"-they're going to follow you all, though, aren't they?"

"More than likely, they will. But I wouldn't put it past them to keep an optic on you two for an opening. It wouldn't be the first time they've used you two to get to Samuel and us." Bumblebee nodded.

From out of nowhere, a deep humming sound filled the air faintly. Ratchet looked the direction we'd come.

"They're preparing for liftoff." He announced. "Come on."

Mom threw herself on my in a hug, ignoring my soaked cloths, while Ratchet transformed to drive back. "Stay safe, Sammy. And if you die, I will bring you back to kill you myself."

"Thanks... I guess." I waited it out until she finally let me go. Dad clapped my shoulder.

"Go on already, time's a-wasting. If you do get caught, call Will or me up. We can try and help, at least." He insisted. Bumblebee transformed and popped the driver's side open.

"We will." I promised, hesitating.

I didn't want to come here in the first place, but if I hadn't, I never would have met them. And if that never happened, then where would I be now? Back in my room, on Earth, probably asleep. Mom and Dad would be complaining about my teenager habits; letting my grades slip, sleeping all the time, acting sick for the first time in my life... We wouldn't have any idea what was really going on with me.

Now I'm going back to Earth, only it's in a way I never really expected. Sneaking onto the surface with a bunch of aliens to the place where I was 'born'.

Shaking my head, I slipped in and shut the door. Ratchet was already inside by the time we went speeding into 'Moon Base Three'. We went directly to a room where everyone was sitting down and either strapped in or holding on. Bumblebee joined them as the noises coming from the ship changed. Everyone seemed rather nervous about take-off, and I can certainly vouch for the squeeze feeling I got as we started to lurch upwards. I squinted my eyes shut in preparation, but by the time we stabilized, the head rush I associated with takeoff from Earth never came.

"Another successful takeoff." Someone congratulated.

"That's eight in a row." Sideswipe agreed, unstrapping himself.

"You all are hilarious." Prowl glared. "How do you calculate trajectory on this thing? How is Teletraan-1 even integrated into this thing, Bumblebee?"

Bee let out a sigh and stood up. I shifted my balance on his shoulder while he went to take over for Prowl.

"Are we going straight for Diego Garcia?" He asked, sitting down where Prowl just stood from. He must usually be the one to drive the ship.

"We'll land in the Pacific." Optimus instructed. "Even with Maggie watching for us, I have no doubt the government has their eyes on the skies over Diego Garcia especially. But I want to come as close to the continent as possible. We'll drive as far as we can before taking to the water."

"And how are we getting through that way?" I wondered. Can one of them transform into a big boat, or what? I don't know exactly where this island is, but from how Mom's always fawned over how surprising it was that I was sent to the states to get adopted, it's a good distance.

"I'm looking to bring in some assistance. If William and Maggie have returned, I'm sure some of our other old allies are back too." Optimus pointed to the monitor. "Ironhide, I want you to search whatever records you can get into to find some familiar names. I want their positions and locations."

"Maggie?" I frowned, confused. Who's that?

"Lennox's contact in MM." Bumblebee filled me in. "Remember, when he came back with a window for us to land?"

"Oh." Yeah, I remember the name being mentioned now. Vaguely, though; it hadn't seemed that important at the time. "How do you know her?"

"She was a scientist at NEST." Ratchet filled in. "One of it's founding members, along with William. William, Robert, Maggie, and Glen."

"Speaking of Bobby, I've found him." Ironhide brought our attention- all but Bumblebee, who was still setting up a landing course to the surface -to the monitor again. "He's still hanging around Will in the Moon Colonization project now. He's a backup, ready to fly up to the moon on a moment's notice to help out or to replace someone. Him and a few of the other soldiers are there too."

"Soldiers?" I frowned again. Will and Bobby as soldiers? Would that have made Dad a soldier too, since he's on the same project?

"Right." Ratchet nodded to me, before looking to the screen again. "Who else are you running searches on right now?"

"Mikaela, Simmons, Leo, and Galloway."

"Galloway? Oh, Primus, tell me he isn't back too." Sideswipe moaned.

"Now way that guy's back. Tell me he isn't." Sunstreaker mirrored his brother.

"Director Galloway would not be a favorable choice." Optimus allowed, "But that would be another familiar name we can ready for. We're looking for something we can work with. As a last resort, we'll barter our way onto a passing ship. Approaching the island from underwater would allow for minimum chances of being detected, but it isn't favorable."

"I just got a hit on Mikaela." Ironhide announced.

"Banes?" I asked. Haven't we already established she's back? Only kid in school I wasn't completely distrustful of, even if she is way out of my league. We don't mingle much, but in the few instances we do, she doesn't seem that reluctant to me either. You know, right before she goes back to forgetting I even exist.

Bet she remembers my name now. Bet the entire country remembers the name of the first kid to live on the moon.

"Of course." Ironhide nodded, pulling up several windows. "She's still in school, senior year. Same school Samuel's been pulled out of. She won't be much help on this mission."

"I didn't think so." Optimus nodded. "You can move past Mikaela, I'm sure she and Samuel are already familiar with each other."

"Kinda." I rubbed my neck.

"Galloway." Ironhide brought up another yellow-flashing tab. Every time the computer locates one of the names, it gives a silent notification in the corner. It's working pretty quickly, at least.

"Oh, great." Sunstreaker sighed. But he went ignored.

"His files are all classified, but he definitely works for the government. What I can find on him is that he's made several trips to Diego Garcia during his career, and he's got a permanent office in the Pentagon."

"NEST doesn't exist anymore, but S-7's probably been resurrected." Sideswipe jabbed darkly.

"I'm sure it isn't that bad." Optimus insisted. "But they would have kept some division relating to us. Just in case, or to at the very least know what to look out for should any Cybertronian return. Artifacts we've left behind, watching for the Decepticons."

"And Galloway's in charge." Sideswipe moaned. "He hates us! Now we've got to deal with that again."

"That's a demon for another day." Optimus insisted. "Have you found anything on the other two yet?"

"Leo's failed to accomplish anything yet. I've found a birth certificate and school records in Nevada, and a mention in a local news paper for hacking the school's system to illegally raise his grade."

"Of course."

"And Simmons isn't with the government at all. He's working with a national news network as a foreign correspondent, with basically the same reputation. He's openly admitted to hoping to find alien artifacts while he's in India." Ironhide laughed. "Say's he's already got some, but the government doesn't pay him any mind."

"Is he in India now?" Optimus asked immediately.

"Actually, yeah. There have been some weird stuff going on with a technology plant Nagercoil and the surrounding area. He's been doing some pieces on these events, and apparently it's a big deal. This company is a big part of some sort of device sold in America, and the last couple of years the technology used and manufactured there has been going crazy." Ironhide summed up, reading an article. "Technology in every radio tower and major business has been acting strange all along the tip of India, but none of the ships sailing outward seem affected."

"The Allspark." Prowl stated like it was the answer to everything. I just shook my head in disbelief.

"If this Allspark is what creates energon and sparks, then what could it have to do with that?" I don't really see the correlation. Messing with technology hundreds of miles away? Is that even possible?

"The Allspark has been known to have a certain..." Ratchet tried to find the word.

"Clairvoyance." Prowl supplied. Ratchet nodded.

"It's been known to have a certain clairvoyance about the future and the interworkings of the present. It obviously sparked you at the perfect time when it was most likely that you'd cross our paths, and it had to have had a hand in insuring your passage on this trip. It more than likely caused the disruptions in that particular area to attract notice from another that we know. The Allspark couldn't be behind it all; reincarnation in organic creatures has never been explored or investigated, but I highly doubt the All spark had any hand in all of their rebirths." Optimus stared at the colored map that accompanied the article. The bolder spots were where the technology was glitchiest.

"But it's definitely behind this." Prowl nodded.

Bumblebee seemed to finish whatever he was doing, looking to the screen when no one else said anything. He then projected his monitor to the larger screen with a diagram of the Earth's location and our position now.

"There's a hurricane at Hawaii now, so we have to come in from the other direction. Which means it will take us several hours to move into position with the right rotation." Bumblebee mused, zooming in and following along the red-line path he'd created. "But we'll land off the coast of China. We can get to Nagercoil quickly enough."

"Good." Optimus mused. "We need to contact Simmons, then, and prepare him. I have faith that he'll take our side again."

"He was the first to turn." Ratchet stated gravelly.

"He doesn't work for the government, there's no chance he'd already know about us... or the conditions in which we left." Optimus sighed. "He will help us."

Once again, curiosity at what they were all avoiding peaked in my mind. I guess it doesn't really matter at this point, it doesn't change the situation, but the more it came up then the more I want to know.

I sat up straight, finding the courage to ask. They don't want to answer, that much is obvious, but this is something I feel I should know.

But before I could ask, a head rush hit me. Sitting up right was suddenly similar to laying in bed for hours and suddenly jumping out and running around the house. I put my head in my hands as I waited for it to pass.

"Are you alright?" Bumblebee took me down off his shoulder. He sounded real worried, so I nodded. That only made it worse, so I clutched my eyes shut.

"The effects of running at a regular pace with an energon-deficiency are starting to catch up to him." Ratchet provided, not too concerned with it. "He'll be fine."

"Thanks for your concern." I mused, looking up at Ratchet with an irritated look.

"A little dizziness is the least of my concerns at the moment, Samuel." Ratchet responded calmly. "Right now, you're facing a dozen dry circuits, damage to every one of your primary processing relays, underdeveloped sensors, and eighty-two broken connections in your spark chamber. And that isn't the half of it."

"I don't know what any of that means. You do know that, right?" I blinked, a bit cranky. Bumblebee rubbed the top of my head, but it didn't work in calming me down as well as it had before.

"You are aware of what a stroke is, correct?" I nodded. Grandpa- Mom's dad -died of a stroke when I was six. "What's happening to you is similar, only much slower and to someone about as far into their development as a very young child. Sensory relays you should have developed by now never initiated their beginning connections because of the lack of energon. I can only hope development will resume as normal once we have the Allspark."

"There have been cases of energon-deficiencies back before the war, haven't there?" Prowl asked.

"Yes, but very rarely have I seen a sparkling that's never even tasted energon." Ratchet shook his head. "Only once before."

"But she survived." Optimus pointed out. "After you got ahold of her, she continued growth as per normal. There have been nearly no lasting effects, after those first few decacycles."

Ratchet smiled and nodded. "Arcee is a fighter. She'd initiated her descent to spark-arrest before she got help too."

"I didn't know that about Arcee." Sideswipe was completely sidetracked. "I mean, I knew you two knew each other before the war, but that far back?"

Ratchet nodded. "I have faith that Samuel will turn out as well as she did, but not until we have the Allspark."

"And we will." Optimus nodded to Bumblebee and me. Then he turned to Ironhide. "Keep digging into Simmons's history. When you feel you've found enough, initiate contact and notify me. I want to run an analysis on this secret sector of the government Galloway is involved in."

"What do you expect us to do?" Sunstreaker asked. "Just wait until we land, twiddling our thumbs?"

"Study the traffic in the Indian Ocean and find the first ten best paths for us to take if Simmons proves to be of no help in getting us there. And identify some modern alternative forms for us. We need proper disguise before being seen by the public. Prowl, I want you to help me." Optimus completely ignored us, save for a nod as he settled in to start his task.

Bumblebee fiddled with the smaller side-monitor he'd been using before standing up. He didn't put me back on his shoulder as he took us out of the room. From what I've noticed of this scouting ship, there's only three or four rooms. That one seems to be the main one, with another room with a large monitor to which Optimus and Prowl went into to start their search. But Bumblebee took me to the room we'd passed when we first brought Mom and Dad in to introduce to all the other Autobots.

The door was open somewhat with a table in plain sight. On top, where he set me down, was an old beanie chair pushed up against the wall with a set of black shelves beside it. The shelves were full of knick-knacks like books and playing cards, an old cookie tin that definitely didn't have cookies inside, and a few model cars.

"Your stuff." I was caught staring. But Bumblebee was on the other side of the room, sifting through a drawer for something. "I hope we've already established, I was fond of you. Not like I could throw it all out, but I hated leaving it there to see every day."

"So I basically had my own room in here?" I asked, joking. He smiled at me briefly before going elbow-deep into the drawer again. Something heavy rolled along the bottom.

"Something like that."

While he searched for whatever it is he's looking for, I walked over to the dusty human-stuff. It felt kind of like intruding to be investigating someone else's stuff like this, but technically I guess it's mine. Is it really, though? Do I actually have any right to call any of this stuff mine?

I sat down in the beanie chair, and Bumblebee looked up quickly. I tensed, ready to get out, but he just smiled and went back into the drawer.

"Got it!" he raised his arm successfully, something gripped in his fist.

"What?" I asked, leaning forward. It sure smells dusty and old, and I kind of hope he doesn't still have a crazy sentimentality towards this chair- and maybe a few of the other things -because it's a century old. I hope we can bring in a little bit of a newer model.

"This." He walked over with a grin and set it down between us. I stared, but still couldn't quite figure it out. It's about the size of a trashcan lid, the kind you put out by the road, and a similar shape. Almost like some sort of warped pyramid with a hole in the middle, it's kind of like a melted cookie too. But it's shiny and black, and obviously has more of a purpose than looking weird.

"Which is..." I looked up at him again. "You've got to help me out here."

"You've been interested in your previous life, so I thought I'd show you. I haven't taken these pictures out in probably about a vorn, so I hope it still works alright." He reached forward to rotate it. He found a switch on the side to turn it on. The first image that popped up made me jump and lean back in the fossil chair. He chuckled.

It was a 3-dimensional picture of my face. I looked different, though. Probably older, and I had a pretty unhappy face. Whoever took this 'picture', I certainly had a bone to pick with.

"Okay..." I stared. So that's what I'll look like when I'm older? Wait, no. That isn't. By the time I'm that age, I'll probably look more like them and not so human. I can't even imagine what it'll be like.

"To weird for right now?" He asked. I shrugged.

"No, I just wasn't expecting... such a big head." It's a head shot, making my head as enlarged as Will's had been on the screen earlier.

"You've always had a big head."

I stuck out my tongue, and he chuckled. The image changed to the next, which was of Optimus and the twins. One of the twins- I couldn't really tell since they look so similar to each other, but different from what I'm used to -was giving Prime bunny ears while they posed for the picture. Bumblebee didn't linger on that one, not finding it that interesting. The next one was of both of us. Bumblebee was mostly just a bust, grinning for the camera while I stood on his shoulder, leaning against the side of his head and smiling with him. I was obviously pretty relaxed with them, at least enough that it carried over and made me relax around them so quickly now.

He lingered long enough on that one to take it in before moving on to the next. The next three pictures were of us again in various positions. In one of them, I was clearly angry for some reason and he was laughing. Upon closer inspection, my hair and clothing looked wet.

Then there was another picture without me in it. It was just Bumblebee, looking pointedly away from the camera while crossing his arms. This one was a little tilted and the subject was clearly the Santa hat Bumblebee was wearing.

"You took that one." Bumblebee supplied before moving on.

It was fascinating to see myself in so many positions, even with some Autobots I don't recognize, when I don't remember ever being there or doing that. It's like I'm looking at pictures of myself while I have amnesia. Pretty soon, Bumblebee got distracted in describing one prank the two of us pulled off on Prowl, which wasn't received well. The picture that's up showed Prowl hanging me in the air by the back of my shirt while I covered my head with a look of fear. Prowl looked positively evil... with a bright pink butterfly painted on his forehead.

"Sounds to me like everything was going pretty well." I mused after the punchline. Bumblebee was grinning at the next picture; me in a graduation cap with a bored face, posing in the most stereotypical position possible.

"I guess it was." Bumblebee agreed, and turned the pictures off. I'd remained in the fossil chair the whole time because when I tried to stand up earlier, I got real dizzy again and had to sit back down.

"Then what went wrong?" I wondered. I'd seen pictures of Will in there too, along with a few other humans that seemed rather out of place. One was somewhat familiar, who Bee explained to be Epps. I've only seen him a few times during training for this trip, but I've never really talked to him. But nevertheless, everyone in the pictures seemed to get along pretty well with the Autobots. But they all talk like when they left the planet, no one was very happy with them.

He held still for a moment before looking over at me.

"Does it have anything to do with my death? I know it isn't really that important now, and I know you guys feel real bad about it, but I kind of want to know. What happened?" I stared at him.

He didn't speak for a moment, the door wings on his back sinking slightly.

"It really isn't as bad as the government made it out to be." He stated. "Absolutely, it's something we accept the blame for and we deserved to face consequences for, but exile was perhaps a bit of an exaggeration. The government's never really liked us or trusted us, so they took it as an opportunity to be rid of us. But not all of the humans at the time had fallen for the government's side of the story. William still held faith in us, as did your parents and Mikaela. So it isn't as bad as it seems."

"Then why do you all avoid talking about it?" I asked.

"We all have ghosts in our closest, and this one is in mine." He stated. "And, it definitely goes farther back than your death, but it's not really..."

"What?" I wanted to know. Maybe it isn't really my place, but... if it's my death than how is it not?

"It's all about where you were when it happened." He sighed. "The Decepticons kidnapped you often enough, that's nothing new. And I've always managed to get you back. One rescue mission just didn't go quite as planned."

"Bumblebee! Samuel!" Ratchet yelled at us from down the hall. "I need to run some more diagnostics! You better not be falling asleep in there again!"

I stood up, letting Bumblebee off the hook then. But as soon as I did, I had to cradle my head. A headache was starting to form with these head rushes, and I just can't wait until this all ends.

He scooped me up. "Better not keep him waiting."

"Yeah." I agreed, waiting for the head rush to pass again.

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><p>So I hope the chapter was worth a nearly two year wait. There's no way it was, I'll be the first to admit, but there it is. More to come, and I really hope I haven't turned you all away from reviewing. Honestly, this chapter is completely up because of the reviews. Thanks, for anyone who's stuck with it this long!<p>

R&R, please.


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